• Yoshihiro Kobashi, Hiroki Shimizu, Yoshihiro Ohue, Keiji Mouri, Yasushi Obase, Naoyuki Miyashita, and Mikio Oka.
• Division of Respiratory Diseases, Department of Medicine, Kawasaki Medical School, 577 Matsushima, Kurashiki, Japan. yoshihiro@med.kawasaki-m.ac.jp
• Lung. 2010 Aug 1; 188 (4): 283-7.

AbstractThrough the use of QuantiFERON-TB Gold, a commercial IFN-gamma assay, we compared differences in quantitative T-cell responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB)-specific antigens [QuantiFERON TB-2G (QFT-2G)] between patients with active tuberculosis (TB) disease and those with latent TB infection (LTBI). The patient group consisted of 180 patients with active TB disease (culture-positive for MTB) and 50 screening contacts with LTBI-positive response to the QFT-2G test. We prospectively performed a tuberculin skin test (TST) and a QFT-2G test for all subjects. The median IFN-gamma levels upon the application of both antigens, ESAT-6 and CFP-10, were significantly higher in patients with active TB disease than in those with LTBI. A combined positive response to both antigens occurred at a higher rate in patients with active TB disease than in those with LTBI. There were no significant relationships between the quantitative responses of IFN-gamma to both antigens and the maximum induration on TST in both patient groups. We demonstrated significant differences in the quantitative responses of IFN-gamma to MTB between patients with active TB disease and those with LTBI in this study. However, there was an overlap in the IFN-gamma levels between active TB disease and LTBI groups. Therefore, it would be difficult to use the QFT-2G test to completely discriminate active TB disease from LTBI.

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