TB Testing
Tuberculosis is an often severe bacterial infection that primarily affects your lungs. Tuberculosis, or TB, is infectious and spreads through tiny droplets that are transmitted via coughs and sneezes of an infected person. There are two main categories of TB—latent TB and active TB.
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Latent TB occurs when inactive bacteria remain in your body after an infection. These bacteria don’t make you sick, and as such, you aren’t contagious. However, latent TB can very quickly become active TB, which is the other type of TB. A person with active TB has active symptoms of TB and is contagious. Active TB can affect you weeks or years after exposure to the TB bacteria.
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If you’ve recently come into contact with a person with active TB, you should get TB testing near you to determine whether you’re showing signs of infection. Early intervention can help you overcome TB before it wreaks havoc in your body.
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Dr. Sayyed offers comprehensive TB testing in Burr Ridge, La Grange, Hinsdale, Chicago. Call us today to book your TB testing appointment.
Symptoms of Tuberculosis
Some groups of people are at high-risk for TB infections. Such people should get regular TB testing to ensure that they’re healthy and free from disease. Frequent TB testing also protects your loved ones against contracting infections. People at increased risk for TB infection include:
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People who live in areas prone to TB, and people who’ve recently traveled to these areas. Such regions include Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Caribbean, Asia, and Africa.
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People who work in high-risk facilities such as homeless shelters, care facilities, and correctional facilities
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Health care workers, including doctors and nurses who treat TB patients
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Infants and children who’ve come in contact with people with latent or active TB
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Some of the symptoms of TB include persistent coughing, fevers and night sweats, chest pain, coughing up blood, chills, loss of appetite accompanied by weight loss. Our doctor in Burr Ridge, La Grange, Hinsdale, Chicago, will perform a series of tests to determine whether you have tuberculosis. If you do, you’ll get started on treatment immediately.
What Happens During Your Appointment?
During your appointment at Lau Medical, our doctor will use a skin test to check whether you have TB infection. For this skin test, our doctor will inject PPD tuberculin below the skin of your forearm. The skin test isn’t painful, and you’ll experience a slight prick of the needle.
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Our doctor will allow you to go home and then check back with you after 48 to 72 hours. If the site of the injection is red and swollen, you likely have a TB infection. The severity of the swelling is indicative of the seriousness of your infection.
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Besides the skin test, our doctor may recommend a blood test to confirm the results of the skin test, or in instances where a skin test is deemed to be ineffective. A blood test for TB is quicker and requires a single appointment.
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Imaging tests and sputum tests are also used in TB testing in Burr Ridge, La Grange, Hinsdale, Chicago.