Get patients on biologics faster

Don’t let tuberculosis testing delay your patient’s treatment plan

The T-SPOT®.TB test takes a fundamentally different approach to testing, enabling you to have confidence even in patients with rheumatic diseases. It is the only TB test that separates cells from whole blood and standardizes the number of these cells in each patient, reducing the risk of false-negative and invalid results. The T-SPOT.TB test is also the only IGRA that washes cells to enable the removal of potentially interfering substances that can affect test results.¹

Are indeterminate TB test results getting in the way of initiating your patient’s biologic therapy?

According to the 2012 and 2015 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Guidelines, patients being considered for therapy with biologic agents, regardless of the presence of risk factors, should be screened for tuberculosis.^2,3 Accordingly, your TB test results can have a significant impact on patient care and, more importantly, the timing in which the patient can access the treatment they need. The guidelines specify:

“The panel recommends that RA patients with a positive initial or repeat TST or IGRA should have a chest radiograph and, if suggestive of active TB, a subsequent sputum examination to check for the presence of active TB. RA patients with a negative screening TST or IGRA may not need further evaluation in the absence of risk factors and/or clinical suspicion for TB. Since patients with RA may have false-negative TST or IGRA results due to immunosuppression, a negative TST or IGRA should not be interpreted as excluding the possibility that a patient has LTBI. Accordingly, in immunosuppressed RA patients with risk factors for LTBI and negative initial screening tests, the panel recommends that a repeat TST or IGRA could be considered 1–3 weeks after the initial negative screening”³