Asking for a friend, patient has no symptoms, negative sputum test, but abnormal chest x-ray indicating tb, is this already considered active tb disease or latent tb infection?

As described, this would be considered latent TB. The guidelines for and duration of any treatment would depend on the past and current medical history, past treatments, etc.

A Quantiferon test is recommended. Imaging findings may be common to a number of conditions. Latent TB typically has a negative imaging study. Additional testing and consideration of other conditions recommended .