Discordant tuberculin skin and interferon-gamma tests during contact investigations: a dilemma for tuberculosis controllers

Int J Tuberc Lung Dis. 2009 May;13(5):662-4.

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 > or =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.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Biomarkers / blood
  • Disease Transmission, Infectious / prevention & control*
  • Disease Transmission, Infectious / statistics & numerical data
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Incidence
  • Infection Control / methods*
  • Interferon-gamma / blood*
  • Male
  • Oregon / epidemiology
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Retrospective Studies
  • Tuberculin Test / methods*
  • Tuberculosis / diagnosis*
  • Tuberculosis / epidemiology
  • Tuberculosis / transmission

Substances

  • Biomarkers
  • Interferon-gamma