Performance of interferon-gamma-inducible-protein-10 in the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis among HIV patients

Background Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major opportunistic infection among people living with HIV (PLHIV). This co-infection leads to atypical presentations and reduces the sensitivity of conventional diagnostic methods. Interferon-gamma-inducible protein 10 (IP-10) has emerged as a potential non-sputum-based biomarker for TB diagnosis. However, there is limited data on the diagnostic performance of this biomarker among the TB/HIV coinfected adult population. Thus, this study evaluated the diagnostic performance of serum IP-10 in detecting TB among the population of TB/HIV co-infected adults and assessed how CD4 + T-cell counts influence its accuracy. Results Of the 56 recruited participants, serum IP-10 showed a sensitivity of 73.7%, specificity of 81.1%, and AUC of 0.777 for TB diagnosis. There was an excellent diagnostic performance among participants with CD4 + > 250 cells/µL (AUC = 0.857) in comparison to those with lower counts (AUC = 0.631). Also, a statistically non-significant inverse negative correlation was observed between IP-10 and CD4 + levels. Conclusion The results of this study highlight the potential utility of IP-10 as a supplementary diagnostic tool in TB/HIV co-infection. However, there is a need for standardisation of cut-off values.