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- Title
Clinical utility of a T cell-based assay in the diagnosis of extrapulmonary tuberculosis.
- Authors
KOBASHI, Yoshihiro; MOURI, Keiji; YAGI, Shinichi; OBASE, Yasushi; MIYASHITA, Naoyuki; OKA, Mikio
- Abstract
Background and objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the QuantiFERON TB-2G (QFT-2G) results in patients with active extrapulmonary tuberculosis (E-TB) to determine whether QFT-2G test might be a reliable diagnostic method for detecting active E-TB infection compared with the tuberculin skin test (TST). Methods: TST and QFT-2G tests were performed for 35 patients with confirmed E-TB, 30 with probable E-TB and 45 who did not have E-TB. Results: For patients with confirmed E-TB, the positive rate of the TST was 57% and that of the QFT-2G test was 86%. For patients with probable E-TB, the positive rate of the TST was 60%, whereas that of the QFT-2G test was 80%. However, the positive rate of the TST was 51% and that of QFT-2G test was 9% for patients that did not have E-TB. The QFT-2G test showed a significantly lower percentage of false-negative results compared with the TST. The sensitivity and specificity of the TST for the diagnosis of active E-TB were 57% and 49%, respectively. By comparison, the sensitivity and specificity of the QFT-2G test were 86% and 84%, respectively. When the results of the TST and QFT-2G tests were separated by the site of E-TB, the positive rates for both tests in patients with miliary tuberculosis were lower than those in patients with other E-TB disease, although the difference was not significant. Conclusions: The QFT-2G appears to be a reliable diagnostic test and in the appropriate clinical context QFT-2G may be more useful than the TST to support a diagnosis of E-TB. Studies are needed to evaluate its value also in situations of low clinical probability.
- Subjects
TUBERCULOSIS; T cells; DIAGNOSIS; PATIENTS; TUBERCULIN test
- Publication
Respirology, 2009, Vol 14, Issue 2, p276
- ISSN
1323-7799
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1440-1843.2008.01443.x