The Journal of Pediatrics
Volume 152, Issue 4 , Pages 585-586, April 2008

Performance of QuantiFERON-TB Testing in a Tuberculosis Outbreak at a Primary School

  • Paola Molicotti, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Biomedical Science, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy
    • Corresponding Author InformationReprint requests: Paola Molicotti, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Sassari, Viale San Pietro 43/b, 07100 Sassari, Italy.
    • ,
  • Alessandra Bua, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Biomedical Science, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy
    • ,
  • Graziella Mela, MD

      Affiliations

    • Pediatric Infectious Disease Clinic, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy
    • ,
  • Paolina Olmeo, MD

      Affiliations

    • Pediatric Infectious Disease Clinic, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy
    • ,
  • Renzo Delogu, MD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Public Health, Sassari, Italy.
    • ,
  • Silvia Ortu, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Biomedical Science, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy
    • ,
  • Leonardo Antonio Sechi, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Biomedical Science, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy
    • ,
  • Stefania Zanetti, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Biomedical Science, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy

Received 5 July 2007; received in revised form 6 November 2007; accepted 5 December 2007.

This study compared the effectiveness of the QuantiFERON-TB Gold (QFT) assay with the Mantoux tuberculin skin test to detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in 29 children during a school outbreak of tuberculosis. Of the 21 children with M tuberculosis infection, 11 had a radiograph suggestive of the infection. The QFT assay was positive in all 21 of the children, and the Mantoux test was negative at first testing in 2 children (1 of whom was the sentinel case). The findings demonstrate that the QFT test is extremely useful in accurately identifying infected and uninfected children, permitting rapid intervention.

Abbreviations: BCG, Bacillus of Calmette and Guerin, LTBI, Latent tuberculosis infection, PCR, Polymerase chain reaction, QFT, QuantiFERON-TB Gold, TB, Tuberculosis

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PII: S0022-3476(07)01160-2

doi:10.1016/j.jpeds.2007.12.014

The Journal of Pediatrics
Volume 152, Issue 4 , Pages 585-586, April 2008

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