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Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, November 2001, p. 1089-1096, Vol. 8, No. 6
Department of Infectious
Diseases1 and Department of
Immunohematology and Blood Transfusion,5 Leiden
University Medical Center, Leiden, Department of Tuberculosis
Control, Municipal Health Department `Zaanstreek en Waterland,'
Zaandam,2 and Football Club Volendam,
Volendam,3 The Netherlands, and
Department of TB Immunology, Statens Serum Institute,
Copenhagen, Denmark4
Received 19 April 2001/Returned for modification 13 June
2001/Accepted 8 August 2001
The tuberculin skin test (TST) is used for the identification of
latent tuberculosis (TB) infection (LTBI) but lacks specificity in
Mycobacterium bovis BCG-vaccinated individuals, who
constitute an increasing proportion of TB patients and their contacts
from regions where TB is endemic. In previous studies, T-cell responses to ESAT-6 and CFP-10, M. tuberculosis-specific antigens
that are absent from BCG, were sensitive and specific for detection of active TB. We studied 44 close contacts of a patient with
smear-positive pulmonary TB and compared the standard screening
procedure for LTBI by TST or chest radiographs with T-cell responses to
M. tuberculosis-specific and nonspecific antigens.
Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were cocultured with ESAT-6, CFP-10,
TB10.4 (each as recombinant antigen and as a mixture of overlapping
synthetic peptides), M. tuberculosis sonicate, purified
protein derivative (PPD), and short-term culture filtrate, using gamma
interferon production as the response measure. LTBI screening was by
TST in 36 participants and by chest radiographs in 8 persons. Nineteen
contacts were categorized as TST negative, 12 were categorized as TST
positive, and 5 had indeterminate TST results. Recombinant antigens and
peptide mixtures gave similar results. Responses to TB10.4 were neither
sensitive nor specific for LTBI. T-cell responses to ESAT-6 and CFP-10
were less sensitive for detection of LTBI than those to PPD (67 versus
100%) but considerably more specific (100 versus 72%). The
specificity of the TST or in vitro responses to PPD will be even less
when the proportion of BCG-vaccinated persons among TB contacts
evaluated for LTBI increases.
1071-412X/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/CDLI.8.6.1089-1096.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Tuberculin Skin Testing Compared with T-Cell
Responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis-Specific and
Nonspecific Antigens for Detection of Latent Infection in Persons
with Recent Tuberculosis Contact

*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Dept. of
Infectious Diseases, C5P, Leiden University Medical Center, P.O. Box
9600, 2300 RC Leiden, The Netherlands. Phone: 31 71 526 26 20. Fax: 31 71 526 67 58. E-mail: s.m.arend{at}lumc.nl.
Current address: Royal Tropical Institute (KIT Health), Amsterdam,
The Netherlands.
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