bell notificationshomepageloginNewPostedit profiledmBox

Hoots : Is the T-spot blood test sensitive enough to determine difference between exposure to the tuberculosis and tuberculosis vaccination? I wonder whether the T-spot blood test is sensitive enough to determine difference between - freshhoot.com

10% popularity   0 Reactions

Is the T-spot blood test sensitive enough to determine difference between exposure to the tuberculosis and tuberculosis vaccination?
I wonder whether the T-spot blood test is sensitive enough to determine difference between exposure to the tuberculosis and tuberculosis vaccination.


Load Full (1)

Login to follow hoots

1 Comments

Sorted by latest first Latest Oldest Best

10% popularity   0 Reactions

The T-spot blood test for tuberculosis is an interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA or IFN-? assay). There are two of these tests (Quantiferon and T-spot) with small differences, but the basic mechanism is the same and they are treated the same for the CDC, which writes:

IGRAs, unlike the TB skin tests, are not affected by prior BCG vaccination and are not expected to give a false-positive result in people who have received BCG

BCG is the tuberculosis vaccine.

While I couldn't find references to primary literature on that CDC site, what I found myself supports this

The paper Discrepancy Between the Tuberculin Skin Test and the Whole-Blood Interferon ? Assay for the Diagnosis of Latent Tuberculosis Infection in an Intermediate Tuberculosis-Burden Country concludes

the IFN-? assay based on the ESAT-6 and CFP-10 M tuberculosis–specific antigens is a useful method for detecting latent TB infections and might help to eliminate the limitations of the TST [tuberculin skin test] in BCG-vaccinated populations in intermediate TB-burden countries.

Tuberculosis contact investigation with a new, specific blood test in a low-incidence population containing a high proportion of BCG-vaccinated persons reaches the same conclusion and recommends the test for vaccinated people. That study used the Quantiferon test, but the two tests have roughly the same sensitivity.


Back to top Use Dark theme