Cost-effectiveness of QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube versus tuberculin skin test for diagnosis and treatment of Latent Tuberculosis Infection in primary health care workers in Brazil.

Objectives: The goal of this study was to perform a cost-effectiveness analysis from the public health system perspective, comparing five strategies for Latent Tuberculosis Infection (LTBI) diagnosis in primary health care workers in Brazil.
Design: Analytical model for decision making, characterized by cost-effectiveness analysis.
Setting: Primary Care Level, considering primary health care workers in Brazil.
Participants: An analytical model for decision making, characterized by a tree of probabilities of events, was developed considering a hypothetical cohort of 10,000 primary health care workers, using the software TreeAge Pro™ 2013 to simulate the clinical and economic impacts of new diagnostic technology (QuantiFERON®-TB Gold in-Tube) versus the traditional tuberculin skin test.
Methods: This model simulated five diagnostic strategies for LTBI in primary health care workers (HCW) in Brazil: tuberculin skin testing using ≥5 mm cut-off, tuberculin skin testing ≥10 mm cut-off, QuantiFERON®-TB Gold in-Tube, tuberculin skin testing using ≥5 mm cut-off confirmed by QuantiFERON®-TB Gold In-Tube if TST positive, tuberculin skin testing using ≥10 mm cut-off confirmed by QuantiFERON®-TB Gold In-Tube if TST positive.
Primary and Secondary Outcome Measures: The outcome measures are the number of individuals correctly classified by the test and the number of Tuberculosis cases avoided.
Results: The most cost-effective strategy was the tuberculin skin test considering ≥10mm cut-off. The isolated use of the QuantiFERON®-TB Gold In-Tube revealed the strategy of lower efficiency with incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of US$ 146.05 for each HCW correctly classified by the test.
Conclusions: The tuberculin skin test using ≥10 mm cut-off was the most cost-effective strategy in the diagnosis of Latent Tuberculosis Infection in primary health care works in Brazil.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. This study has not been submitted elsewhere for publication. All authors have approved the manuscript.