Comparison of erythema and induration as results of tuberculin tests.
METHODS
Schoolchildren, tuberculosis (TB) patients, and hospital employees in Tokyo, Japan.


OBJECTIVE
To compare erythema and induration resulting from tuberculin tests among TB patients, normal children, and hospital employees with and without evidence of atopy.


METHODS
The distributions of diameters of erythema and induration were compared among three groups: 951 TB patients, 6139 first-grade and 6185 seventh-grade children, and 97 volunteer employees classified as atopic or non-atopic on the basis of skin tests and serum immunoglobulin E (IgE) concentrations.


RESULTS
Erythema and induration were highly correlated. The distribution of erythema diameters was unimodal, and the distribution of induration diameters was bimodal. Erythema was considerably greater than induration among persons classified as being atopic.


CONCLUSIONS
Both erythema and induration appear to be adequate indices of tuberculin sensitivity. However, because most of the world uses induration as the index and virtually all studies of tuberculin sensitivity rely on induration, there are advantages in the use of induration. It would be desirable to initiate a large prospective study to see whether erythema or induration is the better predictor of subsequent tuberculous disease, and to confirm our finding that erythema is more likely to be confounded by atopy than induration.
Kimura
M
M
Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare, Tokyo, Japan.
Comstock
G W
GW
Mori
T
T
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D004890:Erythema / Q000139:chemically induced*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006969:Hypersensitivity, Immediate; D007073:Immunoglobulin E / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010564:Personnel, Hospital; D012016:Reference Values; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014374:Tuberculin Test / Q000592:standards*; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000175:diagnosis*
D007073:Immunoglobulin E