QuantiFERON in the news

This article from Reuters (Interferon Assays Better Than Skin Test for Detecting Active TB) fleshes out the original Diel study;

Only a few published studies examined test specificity. Nonetheless, QuantiFERON-TB Gold was found to have a significantly higher specificity than T-Spot.TB: 99.2% vs. 86.3% (p < 0.0001).

"Considering sensitivity for diagnosing active tuberculosis as a surrogate parameter for latent tuberculosis infection, tuberculin skin test-based two-step screening strategies (tuberculin skin test first, interferon-gamma release assays second) for contact tracing should be critically reconsidered due to the poor tuberculin skin test accuracy among tuberculosis patients," the authors conclude.