What Does a Positive TB Skin Test Look Like? 2023 Guide

Today through this article we will cover “What does a positive TB skin test look like.” But before that, we will discuss in detail TB and its infection types.

TB Types:

There are two known types of TB infections, namely Latent TB & Active TB.

A latent TB infection or active TB infection may arise from exposure to Mycobacterium tuberculosis. If you have a latent or active TB infection, you are infected but you might not show any symptoms.

Latent illness has the potential to become a secondary TB infection in the future. If this occurs, you might have symptoms like:

1.  coughing
2.  Fever
3.  nausea
4. coughing up mucus with or without blood
5. loss of appetite

To stop the illness from becoming active again, a doctor may treat latent TB first. As reported by the Office of Disease Control and Prevention, 1 to 10 people will reactivate latent tuberculosis infections.

Years after the original infection, which could happen approximately six months later, a doctor may use a combination of medications to manage active TB disease.

Detecting an Infection

A TB skin test is performed by injecting a liquid named tuberculin into the skin (forearm), which detects the TB bacteria’s presence in the body. The test result is positive if your forearm turns blue after 72 hours.

Difference Between Positive TB Skin Test and Negative TB Skin Test

To perform a tuberculosis skin test, a very small amount of the test is infused into the dermis of the right forearm. Within 48 and 72 hours of the initial visit, a skilled healthcare professional should confirm a response.

The magnitude of the pain and swelling or the elevated, hard area impacts the result.

• A positive skin test indicates that the individual has TB bacteria on their body.
• Additional tests are required to confirm whether a person has a Latent tb or tuberculosis disease.
• A negative skin test indicates that there is unlikely to be a latent TB infection or TB disease because the subject’s body did not react to the negative test itself.
• If the test is repeated, it should be done on a different part of the body (such as a different arm)

Spread of TB:

As we all know that TB is spread from one person to another through the air. One person may inhale droplets containing TB bacteria whenever an individual with active tuberculosis throughout their lungs sneezes or coughs.

• Whenever the infected person exhales TB bacteria into the air in the form of droplets by laughing, singing, coughing, and sneezing, the non-infected person inhales that bacteria and gets infected through this direct contact.
• There are also several myths that TB is spread by shaking hands, kissing, sharing food, etc. which is completely wrong. TB is only spread through the air.

What do I Need to do to Prepare for a TB Skin Test?

It is not required to follow any special protocols.

What Do Abnormal Results Mean?

If your TB blood test results are “positive,” you most likely have TB germs in your body. If the blood test for tuberculosis is positive, latent tuberculosis infection is most common. To be certain, your doctor might ask for a chest X-ray.

To confirm whether you have active or latent TB infection, additional tests may be needed. Your skin test results or results from a blood test will typically either be positive or negative.

If the test is a false-positive test, then you have contracted the TB bacteria. To determine if you’re suffering from a persistent TB infection or XDR-TB, you will require additional testing.

Sputum culture and a chest x-ray are two instances of these tests. You might undergo a TB blood examination to verify the result of the skin prick test if your TB skin test revealed a false-positive test result.

If the test is negative, your skin and blood did not respond to the procedure. It’s highly improbable that a negative test will reveal whether you have a latent infection or Xdr – tb. But if any of the subsequent situations describe you:

• show signs of TB
• were examined before six to eight weeks had passed following TB exposure.
• own HIV

If your tuberculosis blood test result is “borderline,” you may not have tuberculosis.

In most cases, TB screening seems to be accurate. TB skin tests, however, are not as accurate as TB blood tests.

However, skin tests for tuberculosis are less reliable than blood tests for tuberculosis. Physicians consider the impact skin reactions, medical conditions, or medical history may have on the consistency of a person’s test results.

How Does a TB Blood Test Work?

• A blood test is used to detect the presence of TB bacteria in serum. These tests use a blood sample to check for an immune system that has already been suppressed in response to the bacteria.
• TB is a viral infection that typically harms the respiratory system. According to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Trusted Source, tuberculosis (TB) is the world’s second most common infectious disease and the 13th leading cause of death overall. Around 23% of the worldwide population had TB in 2018; evidence suggests that the disease kills 1.5 million people annually.
• The Institutions for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Trusted Source estimates that up to 13 million people in the United States have a latent TB infection and that 7,174 cases will be diagnosed in the country in 2020, even though Asia and Africa account for the majority of cases.

To check for TB, a doctor can perform a skin test or a blood test. By taking into account variables like the testing rationale, test accessibility, and test cost, a health professional will choose the most appropriate test.

What are the Risks of a TB (tuberculosis) Test?

There is a low risk that people will have a serious negative or positive reaction, and there is a very small chance of experiencing adverse symptoms to the test, such as arm swelling and redness, especially for those who have had TB or been infected in the past, as well as for those who have received the BCG vaccine. Rare complications of a positive test can also include allergic reactions.

How Does a Mantoux Tuberculin Skin Test Work?

Skin test for tuberculosis: 

• A bacterial infection is an illness known as tuberculosis (TB). Since the bacteria are “sleeping” or “dormant,” the majority of TB patients show no symptoms. It is known as active tuberculosis (latent TB).
• TB disease can manifest in some latent TB patients (active TB). Although the lungs are frequently affected, this could hinder every part of the body. Both latent tuberculosis infection and active TB could be treated in Australia.

What is the TST for tuberculin skin?

The Mantoux Test is an additional name for the tuberculosis skin test, tuberculin (TST). To find out if you have TB bacteria in your immune system now, you should undergo a skin test.

How did it get done?

• TST is complete:
• to identify latent TB in someone who may have come into recent contact with an active TB patient.
• Before administering the BCG vaccine to infants older than 6 months, it is important to determine whether a person must have latent tuberculosis before beginning work at a hospital or before traveling to a region with a TB infection prevalence.

How does it work?

• Injection of the tuberculin skin test into the forearm
• On the forearm, a tiny quantity of purified protein extracted from dead tuberculosis bacteria is injected beneath the epidermis.
• This is accomplished using a sterile, disposable needle and syringe.
• The area will develop a small blister, which will vanish in a few hours to 20 minutes. Additionally, there might be a tiny little blood vessel at the syringe injection site too.
• You have to revisit your nurse or physician three days after the injection to have the swollen gland in the treated area checked out. The likelihood that individuals have a dormant TB infection will depend solely on the millimeter size of their lump.

Interferon Gamma Release Assay (IGRA): What Is It?

An IGRA is a complete blood count that can tell whether someone has TB bacteria in their immune system’s response. An IGRA analyses a person’s blood in a lab to determine how well their immune system responds to TB bacteria. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized two IGRAs, which are currently offered in the country:

How is the IGRA Put to Use?

Using a small needle and specialized tubes, blood is collected. According to the IGRA test instructions, the blood is sent to a lab. The test is conducted in the lab, which then notifies the healthcare professional of the results.

What Does a Favorable IGRA Outcome Imply?

A positive IGRA indicates that the subject has contracted the TB bacterium. To determine whether an individual has a latent case of TB or TB disease, additional tests are required. Then, a healthcare professional will administer any necessary care.

Who is Eligible for an IGRA?

An IGRA can be used in the location of a TST by anyone. This could apply to any circumstance in which a TST is advised. Overall, a person shouldn’t have both an IGRA and a TST. In rare instances, information from tests may help determine whether an individual has active TB. For the following purposes, IGRAs are the method of choice for TB infection test results:

• individuals who have received the BCG vaccine
• Those who find it hard to set up a follow-up appointment to review the sterile technique after the test has been administered

Recommended Action

• A broad-sense infection control program includes a mycobacterium (TB) infection prevention and control plan that aims to ensure the following:
• timely TB patient identification, airborne safety measures, and
• treatment for those with either a confirmed or suspected case of TB.

Indeed, tobacco control procedures and policies should be established and regularly reviewed and analyzed for effectiveness in all healthcare settings, especially where patients are most likely to be exposed to TB. This will help determine the steps needed to reduce various risk factors for tuberculosis infection.

The three-level power structure of control measures that should be the foundation of TB infection prevention and control are:

• administration of law
• Environmental safeguards
• application of breathing protective equipment

What type of results do you get from a TB (tuberculosis) test?

A TB skin blood sample will either yield a negative or positive result. It’s critical to keep in mind that all these tests only reveal whether you have ever been subjected to the bacillary (tuberculosis) infection; they do not reveal whether the disease is active or dormant. Skin test results from people who have received the TB vaccine may be either false positives or false negatives, or they may be wrongly considered positive.

A positive TB test

• If someone has a positive TB patch test or blood sample, he or she probably has been exposed to the bacteria that causes TB (Mycobacterium). More tests will probably be requested by your doctor to aid in the diagnosis. Chest X-rays and research lab analysis of a sputum sample are two tests used to identify active TB infections. Sputum is a thick liquid that is a mixture of saliva and mucus produced in the throat or lungs. It is always advisable to get treatment for TB as soon as possible.
• According to healthcare researchers, both types of TB required immediate treatment.

A  Negative TB test

• A negative TB test is the opposite of a positive TB test; in this test, the fluid (tuberculin) that the doctor injects into the body doesn’t show the presence of Mycobacterium.
• If your results were a negative or positive TB skin test but you still exhibit TB symptoms, you might require additional testing.

What Does a Positive tb Skin Test Look Like?

If you have symptoms or are thought to be at high risk of exposure to TB and your TB test is positive, a doctor will probably prescribe medication to treat the infection and lessen symptoms.

A positive skin test looks different for everybody, and it thoroughly depends on the risk factors. If you test positive, your skin will have a bump of a certain size over the area where the needle was injected.

This bump indicates the presence of TB germs in your body. A doctor may advise you to undergo another test to verify the initial infection diagnosis if you tested positive but are at low or high risk because of TB exposure.

Although the complete blood count is more precise than the test result, it cannot tell the difference between latent TB infection and active TB illness.