Alternative assays to the tuberculin skin test

作者：Meier Thomas^*; Enders Martin

来源：Journal of Laboratory Medicine, 2010, 34(4): 197-203.

DOI：10.1515/JLM.2010.038et

• interferon-gamma release assay
• Mycobacterium tuberculosis
• QuantiFERON-TB Gold in-Tube
• T-SPOT.TB
• tuberculin skin test
• tuberculosis

For more than a century the tuberculin skin test (TST) has been used for the indirect detection of tuberculosis infection. In the past few years, the interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs) are available as alternative blood tests for the clinical diagnostic laboratory. The new IGRAs T-SPOT. TB and QuantiFERON-TB Gold in-Tube demonstrate at least comparable sensitivity with a clearly higher specificity than the TST. Compared with the TST, the IGRAs are not confounded by prior BCG vaccination. The IGRAs considerably improve the diagnosis of latent tuberculosis with impact for initiating preventive treatment in contact tracing. Diagnosis of active tuberculosis is still based on microbiological and molecular methods. However, IGRAs can complement the diagnostic methods for pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis.

• 出版日期2010-7