title: The role of a whole blood interferon-gamma assay for the detection of latent tuberculosis infection in Bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccinated children.
abstract: The tuberculin skin test (TST) has limitations in children who are under the Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) effect. Our aim was to evaluate the QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube (QFT-G IT) blood test for Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in children and to compare results with those of the TST. QFT-G IT and TST data were collected from 227 children between 0 and 15 years of age, split into 4 risk groups. Forty-two children were close contacts, 29 were casual contacts, and 65 were controls. The QFT-G IT positivity rates were 19% (8/42), 6.9% (2/29), and 1.5% (1/65), with a significantly higher rate for the close contacts over the controls (P < 0.05). The high specificity of the QFT-G IT assay and the association of positive results with increasing risk of infection in our study suggest it has major benefits over the TST as a screening test for latent infection with M. tuberculosis in BCG-vaccinated children.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pediatric Infection and Immunology, Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Yonsei University, Seoul 120-752, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jin-Kyong
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Chun
authors.forename: Chang Ki
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Hyon-Suk
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Ghee Young
authors.initials: GY
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.forename: Taek Jin
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Ki Hwan
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Dong Soo
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D001500:BCG Vaccine / Q000276:immunology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016358:Contact Tracing; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D001500:BCG Vaccine; D007371:Interferon-gamma