Abstract
Current recommendations conflict over the appropriate use of interferon-gamma whole blood assays to screen for tuberculosis (TB) infection in contact investigations. We report here on a worksite TB contact investigation in which tuberculin skin test (TST) and QuantiFERON®-TB Gold (QFT-G) were both used to identify infection among 61 co-workers. Of the 27 (44%) who had a TST ≥15 mm, 11 (41%) had negative QFT-G, raising concerns that QFT-G may not be sufficiently sensitive when used alone in contact investigations. The questionable performance of QFT-G in this setting is not unexpected, as the negative predictive value of a test decreases with increasing prevalence.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 662-664 |
Number of pages | 3 |
Journal | International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease |
Volume | 13 |
Issue number | 5 |
State | Published - 2009 |
Keywords
- Contact investigation
- Epidemiology
- Interferon gamma assay
- Tuberculosis
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine
- Infectious Diseases