Use of the QuantiFERON-TB Gold test in Japanese patients with sarcoidosis.
OBJECTIVE
Mycobacterium tuberculosis has been proposed as a candidate agent for the cause of sarcoidosis. The QuantiFERON-TB Gold test has a higher specificity for detecting M. tuberculosis infection than the conventional tuberculin skin test. This study aimed to investigate the rate of positive QuantiFERON-TB Gold results in Japanese sarcoidosis patients.


METHODS
The QuantiFERON-TB Gold test, an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, was used to assess the levels of interferon-gamma resulting from immune responses to M. tuberculosis-specific antigens, namely early secretory antigen target 6 and culture filtrate protein 10, in 90 Japanese sarcoidosis patients.


RESULTS
The QuantiFERON-TB Gold result was positive in 3 of the 90 patients tested.


CONCLUSIONS
The positivity rate of QuantiFERON-TB Gold was 3.3% in Japanese sarcoidosis patients.
Inui
Naoki
N
The Second Division, Department of Internal Medicine, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, 1-20-1 Handayama, Hamamatsu 431-3192, Japan. inui@hama-med.ac.jp
Suda
Takafumi
T
Chida
Kingo
K
D000328:Adult; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000032:analysis; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D017565:Sarcoidosis, Pulmonary / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology; D012882:Skin Tests / Q000379:methods; D014374:Tuberculin Test; D014397:Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / Q000175:diagnosis*
D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; C117940:CFP-10 protein, Mycobacterium tuberculosis; C093276:ESAT-6 protein, Mycobacterium tuberculosis; D007371:Interferon-gamma