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Interferon- release assays do not identify more children with active tuberculosis than the tuberculin skin test

For affiliations, please see the Acknowledgements section.

CORRESPONDENCE: B. Kampmann, Academic Dept of Paediatrics, 2nd Floor Wright-Fleming Building, Imperial College London, St. Mary's Campus, Norfolk Place, London W2 1PG, UK. Fax: 44 2075943894. E-mail: b.kampmann{at}imperial.ac.uk

Keywords: Children, interferon- release assays, skin test, tuberculosis

Received: October 10, 2008
Accepted January 12, 2009

Data are lacking on the performance of interferon- release assays (IGRAs) in children. Although IGRAs are recommended for screening for latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI), many clinicians wish to employ them as a diagnostic test for active tuberculosis (TB). The objective of the present study was to compare the performance of the two commercially available IGRAs and the tuberculin skin test (TST) side-by-side in children with active TB and LTBI.

In a prospective study, 209 children were investigated for active (n = 91) or latent TB (n = 118). TST, QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-tube (QFG-IT; Cellestis, Carnegie, Australia) and T-SPOT.TB (Oxford Immunotec, Abingdon, UK) assays were simultaneously used.

For culture-confirmed active TB, the sensitivity of the TST was 83%, compared with 80% for QFG-IT and 58% for T-SPOT.TB. IGRAs did not perform significantly better than TST, although QFG-IT was significantly better than T-SPOT.TB. The agreement between QFG-IT and T-SPOT.TB in culture-confirmed TB was poor at 66.7%. In LTBI, the agreement between QFG-IT and T-SPOT.TB was very good (92%) with moderate agreement between TST and T-SPOT.TB (75%) and QFG-IT and TST (77%).

A negative interferon- release assay should not dissuade paediatricians from diagnosing and treating presumed active tuberculosis. If used for diagnosis of latent tuberculosis infection, interferon- release assays could significantly reduce the numbers of children receiving chemoprophylaxis. Very good concordance between both tests was found.

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