title: Tuberculin skin test and QuantiFERON in children.
abstract: Until some time ago, the tuberculin skin test was the only available screening test for the diagnosis of tubercular infection. Now the new interferon-? release assay QuantiFERON-TB Gold shows promise of greater accuracy in the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis-infected subjects. The aim of our study was to evaluate the use of QuantiFERONTB Gold in children and to verify its agreement with the tuberculin skin test. A total of 27 children had a positive tuberculin skin test, 76 subjects were negative and the remaining 2 had a dubious Mantoux test. A positive QuantiFERONTB Gold result was obtained in 21 children while in 84 it was negative. No statistically significant difference was detected between the two assays, which showed a concordance of 90.57%. Our results demonstrated a good concordance between the tuberculin skin test and the interferon-? release assay, though the QuantiFERON-TB may have several advantages over the Mantoux test.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Sassari, Italy. ale.b76@email.it
authors.forename: Alessandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bua
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Molicotti
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cannas
authors.forename: Melania
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ruggeri
authors.forename: Paolina
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Olmeo
authors.forename: Stefania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zanetti
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003955:Diagnostic Tests, Routine / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification; D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic; D012867:Skin / Q000276:immunology*; D012882:Skin Tests / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D014374:Tuberculin Test; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology
chemical_list: D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic; D007371:Interferon-gamma