Authors: Katsenos, S.¹; Nikolopoulou, M.¹; Konstantinidis, A.K.¹; Gartzonika, C.²; Gogali, A.¹; Margelis, I.²; Tatsioni, A.³; Mavridis, A.²; Constantopoulos, S.H.¹; Daskalopoulos, G.¹

Source: The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, Volume 14, Number 5, May 2010 , pp. 545-550(6)

Publisher: International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease

Abstract:

OBJECTIVE: To compare the most recent commercial interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA), the QuantiFERON^®-TB Gold In-Tube (QFT-GIT), with the tuberculin skin test (TST) in Greek army recruits who were bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccinated during childhood and had no history of tuberculosis (TB) exposure.

METHOD: We conducted a cross-sectional comparison study of 1750 young army recruits. TST was performed on all participants, while QFT-GIT was performed in all subjects with TST > 0 mm and in 18 TST-negative controls (TST = 0 mm).

RESULTS: Among the study subjects, 5.4% (96/1750) had TST indurations of ≥10 mm, and 3.4% (59/1750) had indurations of ≥15 mm. Among subjects with a positive TST, 11.4% (11/96) tested positive on QFT-GIT. All those with QFT-GIT positivity had TST indurations of ≥15 mm, and none of those with TST indurations of 10-14 mm were positive by QFT-GIT. The overall agreement between TST and QFT-GIT was poor (κ = 0.02).

CONCLUSION: We found a significant discordance between TST and QFT-GIT in BCG-vaccinated Greek army recruits consistent with previous studies showing that BCG received after infancy produces false-positive TST reactions. Our findings underline the need for a two-step approach in diagnosing latent TB infection in all BCG-vaccinated individuals: initial TST screening, followed by an IGRA to confirm TST positivity.

Keywords: latent tuberculosis infection; QuantiFERON; IGRA; tuberculin skin test; BCG

Document Type: Regular paper

Affiliations: 1: Department of Pneumonology, University Hospital of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece 2: Department of Microbiology, University Hospital of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece 3: Department of Family Medicine, University Hospital of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece

Publication date: 2010-05-01

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