Background Most UK tuberculosis (TB) cases occur in immigrants from high TB incidence areas, implicating reactivation of imported latent TB infection (LTBI). Strategies to identify and treat immigrant LTBI in primary care at the time of first registration (coded Flag-4) may be effective. Methods This was an 11-year retrospective cohort study to evaluate effectiveness of LTBI screening in recent immigrants to Leicestershire at their time of primary care registration. We examined the temporal relationship between dates of Flag-4 primary care registration (n=59 007) and foreign-born TB (FB-TB) cases (n=857), for immigrants arriving to the UK after 1999. TB diagnosed >6 months after registration was considered potentially preventable with screening. Primary outcomes were the potentially preventable proportion of FB-TB and the number needed to screen (NNS) of immigrants to identify one potentially preventable case, stratified by age and region of origin. Results 250 cases (29%) were potentially preventable in Flag-4-registered immigrants. Overall, 511 cases (60%) were potentially preventable among primary-care registered immigrants, implying a significant proportion without Flag-4 status. Prospective TB incidence (95% CI) after Flag-4 registration was 183 (163 to 205) cases/ 100 000 person-years, with a NNS (95% CI) of 145 (130 to 162). Targeted screening was most effective for 16-35 year olds from TB incidence regions 150-499/ 100 000 (NNS (95% CI)=65 (57 to 74), preventing 159 (18.7%) cases). Unpreventable TB risk increased with delayed primary care registration after UK entry ( p<0.001) and was associated with HIV seropositivity (relative risk (95% CI)=1.89 (1.25 to 2.84), p=0.003). Conclusions LTBI screening at primary care registration offers an effective strategy for potentially identifying immigrants at high risk of developing TB.
Introduction: Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is difficult to diagnose. An accurate blood biomarker could prompt specialist referral or be deployed in future screening. In earlier retrospective studies, SOMAscan proteomics (Somalogic, Boulder, CO) and fibulin-3 seemed highly accurate, but SOMAscan has not been validated prospectively and subsequent fibulin-3 data have been contradictory.
Over 50 systemic conditions may affect the pleura and, thus, unilateral pleural effusions may present for a variety of reasons. Investigating the cause is essential to providing appropriate management. Various pleural interventions are available in current practice, but have varying diagnostic sensitivity. It is, therefore, vital to consider the intervention with the highest diagnostic yield appropriate to the particular clinical situation. The diagnostic pathway in unilateral pleural effusion is increasingly outpatient based, avoiding hospitalisation, which is particularly relevant with the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
HDC HRG criteria identify children who consume significantly greater staff resources. Revision of the definition has resulted in a large reduction of cases meeting the criteria but identifies a group consuming greater staff resources.
We present a case of a 33-year-old man with a background of HIV and Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS), who presented with a right sided chylothorax. He was managed with percutaneous chest drainage and talc pleurodesis, in addition to his chemotherapy and antiretroviral therapy for KS and HIV, respectively. Good clinical control of the chylothorax remained 4 months post drainage. This case report summarises the approach to investigating and managing pleural effusion, and in particular chylothorax, in HIV patients.
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