Of the 243 children (median age: 18 months) recruited, 214 (88 percent) had interpretable T-SPOT.TB results. Children age 12 months or older were more likely to have positive T-SPOT.TB results than younger children; however, TB skin test results were unaffected by age. For culture-confirmed TB, the sensitivity of the T-SPOT.TB was no better than that of the TB skin test (50 percent and 80 percent, respectively); it was poorer for the combined group of culture-confirmed and clinically probable TB (40 percent and 52 percent, respectively). In the 50 children clinically categorized as not having TB, the specificity of both the T-SPOT.TB and the TB skin test was 84 percent.
"For young children presenting in a community setting after exposure to tuberculosis or with symptoms suggesting tuberculosis, T-SPOT.TB cannot be used to exclude active disease," the authors concluded. "The sensitivity of this assay may be impaired for very young children."
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