Latent Tuberculosis Infection and COVID-19: Analysis of a Cohort of Patients from Careggi University Hospital (Florence, Italy)

• Main Authors: Francesca Mariotti (Author), Francesco Sponchiado (Author), Filippo Lagi (Author), Chiara Moroni (Author), Riccardo Paggi (Author), Seble Tekle Kiros (Author), Vittorio Miele (Author), Alessandro Bartoloni (Author), Jessica Mencarini (Author), The COCORA Working Group (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: MDPI AG, 2023-12-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 10.3390/idr15060068; 2036-7449
• Keywords: latent tuberculosis infection; COVID-19; QuantiFERON-TB test; tuberculosis radiological sequelae; in-hospital mortality; Other systems of medicine; RZ201-999
• Source: Infectious Disease Reports, Vol 15, Iss 6, Pp 758-765 (2023)

Data regarding the relationship between coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and active or latent tuberculosis (TB) are discordant. We conducted a retrospective study examining the impact of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) on the clinical progression of COVID-19 patients. We selected 213 patients admitted with COVID-19 in a tertiary-level Italian hospital (February-December 2020), who underwent a QuantiFERON-TB test (QFT) and/or chest radiological exam. The population was divided into three groups: (i) QFT negative and without radiological TB sequelae (Neg); (ii) QFT positive and without radiological TB sequelae (Pos); (iii) radiological TB sequelae regardless of QFT result (Seq). In-hospital mortality and oro-tracheal intubation (OTI) showed significantly higher results in the Seq group (Seq 50% vs. Pos 13.3% vs. Neg 9.3%, <i>p</i> < 0.001; Seq 16.7% vs. Pos 6.7% vs. Neg 4.9%, <i>p</i> = 0.045). Considering the Pos and Seq groups' patients as the population with defined LTBI, in-hospital mortality (20/51, 39.2%) and OTI risk (7/51, 13.7%) were statistically higher with respect to patients without LTBI (in-hospital mortality: 15/162, 9.3%, <i>p</i> < 0.001; OTI risk: 8/162, 4.9%, <i>p</i> = 0.023), respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that radiological sequelae and the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) were significantly associated with higher mortality rate; despite the higher CCI of Seq population, we cannot exclude the correlation between COVID-19 in-hospital mortality and the presence of radiological TB sequelae.