ArticlePloS one2013
Cost-effectiveness of Quantiferon®-TB Gold-in-Tube versus tuberculin skin testing for contact screening and treatment of latent tuberculosis infection in Brazil.
Article in PloS one, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Economic Evaluation of Screening Strategy for Latent Tuberculosis Infection (LTBI) in Contacts of Tuberculosis Patients: Systematic Review and Quality Assessment.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- A Systematic Review of Methodological Variation in Healthcare Provider Perspective Tuberculosis Costing Papers Conducted in Low- and Middle-Income Settings, Using An Intervention-Standardised Unit Cost Typology.PharmacoEconomics · 2020Pooled it
- Systematic Review of Health Economic Evaluations of Diagnostic Tests in Brazil: How accurate are the results?Clinics (Sao Paulo, Brazil) · 2017Pooled it
- Performance of QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube test and Tuberculin Skin Test for diagnosis of latent tuberculosis infection in BCG vaccinated health care workers.Medical science monitor : international medical journal of experimental and clinical research · 2014Trial
- Estimated costs of tuberculosis services in Brazil, 2023.BMJ open respiratory research · 2025Article
- Article
- Effect of successive tuberculin skin test readings on healthcare professionals' proficiency: an operational observational study in five high-tuberculosis-burden Brazilian municipalities, 2023-2024.Epidemiologia e servicos de saude : revista do Sistema Unico de Saude do Brasil · 2025Observational
- Observational
- Cost-effectiveness and health impact of screening and treatment of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection among formerly incarcerated individuals in Brazil: a Markov modelling study.The Lancet. Global health · 2024Article
- Economic evaluation of diagnosis and treatment for latent tuberculosis infection among contacts of pulmonary tuberculosis patients in Thailand.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Simulation-based economic evaluation of the Wolbachia method in Brazil: a cost-effective strategy for dengue control.Lancet regional health. Americas · 2024Article
- Cost-effectiveness of diagnostic technologies for mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in India and Brazil.PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- Systematic review of the economic impact of novel Mycobacterium tuberculosis specific antigen-based skin tests for detection of TB infection compared with tuberculin skin test and interferon-gamma release assays.PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- A costing framework to compare tuberculosis infection tests.BMJ global health · 2023Article
- The Global Expansion of LTBI Screening and Treatment Programs: Exploring Gaps in the Supporting Economic Evidence.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Economic evaluation of novel Mycobacterium tuberculosis specific antigen-based skin tests for detection of TB infection: A modelling study.PLOS global public health · 2023Article
- A data driven policy to minimise the tuberculosis testing cost among healthcare workers.The International journal of health planning and management · 2022Article
- The economic burden of congenital Zika Syndrome in Brazil: an overview at 5 years and 10 years.BMJ global health · 2022Article
- Scaling up investigation and treatment of household contacts of tuberculosis patients in Brazil: a cost-effectiveness and budget impact analysis.Lancet regional health. Americas · 2022Article
- Determining the value of TB active case-finding: current evidence and methodological considerations.The international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease : the official journal of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundLatent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) is a reservoir for new TB cases. Isoniazid preventive therapy (IPT) reduces the risk of active TB by as much as 90%, but LTBI screening has limitations. Unlike tuberculin skin testing (TST), interferon-gamma release assays are not affected by BCG vaccination, and have been reported to be cost-effective in low-burden countries. The goal of this study was to perform a cost-effectiveness analysis from the health system perspective, comparing three strategies for LTBI diagnosis in TB contacts: tuberculin skin testing (TST), QuantiFERON®-TB Gold-in-Tube (QFT-GIT) and TST confirmed by QFT-GIT if positive (TST/QFT-GIT) in Brazil, a middle-income, high-burden country with universal BCG coverage. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL
findingsCosts for LTBI diagnosis and treatment of a hypothetical cohort of 1,000 adult immunocompetent close contacts were considered. The effectiveness measure employed was the number of averted TB cases in two years. Health system costs were US$ 105,096 for TST, US$ 121,054 for QFT-GIT and US$ 101,948 for TST/QFT-GIT; these strategies averted 6.56, 6.63 and 4.59 TB cases, respectively. The most cost-effective strategy was TST (US$ 16,021/averted case). The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was US$ 227,977/averted TB case for QFT-GIT. TST/QFT-GIT was dominated.
conclusionsUnlike previous studies, TST was the most cost-effective strategy for averting new TB cases in the short term. QFT-GIT would be more cost-effective if its costs could be reduced to US$ 26.95, considering a TST specificity of 59% and US$ 18 considering a more realistic TST specificity of 80%. Nevertheless, with TST, 207.4 additional people per 1,000 will be prescribed IPT compared with QFT.
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