ArticleAmerican journal of respiratory and critical care medicine2013
Challenges with QuantiFERON-TB Gold assay for large-scale, routine screening of U.S. healthcare workers.
Article in American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 39 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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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.
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Who cites it
39 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 101 citations in OpenAlex.
- Reproducibility of interferon gamma (IFN-γ) release Assays. A systematic review.Annals of the American Thoracic Society · 2014Pooled it
- Effect of BCG vaccination against Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in adult Brazilian health-care workers: a nested clinical trial.The Lancet. Infectious diseases · 2024Trial
- Primary Prophylaxis to Prevent Tuberculosis Infection in Prison Inmates: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2020Trial
- Dynamic, quantitative ESAT6-CFP10 skin test for tuberculosis risk prediction: a large-scale, multi-center, prospective cohort study.The Lancet regional health. Western Pacific · 2026Article
- Article
- Diagnosis and Treatment of Latent Tuberculosis Infection in Adults in South Korea.Tuberculosis and respiratory diseases · 2025Article
- Serial interferon-gamma release assay in lung cancer patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors: a prospective cohort study.Cancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII · 2022Article
- Variability of interferon-γ release assays in people at high risk of tuberculosis infection or progression to tuberculosis disease living in the United States.Clinical microbiology and infection : the official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases · 2022Article
- Tuberculosis and Other Airborne Microbes in Occupational Health and Safety.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Effect of HIV-infection on QuantiFERON-plus accuracy in patients with active tuberculosis and latent infection.The Journal of infection · 2020Article
- Serial testing of health care workers for tuberculosis infection: A prospective cohort study.PloS one · 2020Article
- Performance Evaluation of a New Automated Chemiluminescent Immunoanalyzer-Based Interferon-Gamma Releasing Assay AdvanSure I3 in Comparison With the QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube Assay.Annals of laboratory medicine · 2020Article
- Evaluating Latent Tuberculosis Infection Test Performance Using Latent Class Analysis in a TB and HIV Endemic Setting.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2019Article
- Paediatric tuberculosis transmission outside the household: challenging historical paradigms to inform future public health strategies.The Lancet. Respiratory medicine · 2019Article
- Higher Positivity Rate with Fourth-Generation QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus Assay in Low-Risk U.S. Health Care Workers.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2019Article
- Paradox of serial interferon-gamma release assays: variability width more important than specificity size.The international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease : the official journal of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease · 2018Article
- Testing of tuberculosis infection among Chinese adolescents born after terminating the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin booster vaccination: subgroup analysis of a population-based cross-sectional study.Frontiers of medicine · 2017Article
- Evaluation of QuantiFERON-TB Gold-Plus in Health Care Workers in a Low-Incidence Setting.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2017Article
- Revisiting annual screening for latent tuberculosis infection in healthcare workers: a cost-effectiveness analysis.BMC medicine · 2017Article
- Serial QuantiFERON testing and tuberculosis disease risk among young children: an observational cohort study.The Lancet. Respiratory medicine · 2017Observational
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
rationaleNorth American occupational health programs that switched from the tuberculin skin test (TST) to IFN-γ release assays for latent tuberculosis screening are reporting challenges with interpretation of serial testing results in healthcare workers (HCWs). However, limited data exist on the reproducibility of serial IFN-γ release assay results in low-risk HCWs.
objectivesTo evaluate the short-term reproducibility of QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube (QFT) in a large cohort of HCWs and to define a QFT cutoff yielding a conversion rate equivalent to historical TST rates.
methodsWe retrospectively evaluated the QFT results from HCWs with two or more QFT tests performed between June 2008 and July 2010 at an academic institution. Outcome measures were proportions of reproducibility, quantitative results, and conversion rates with alternate QFT cutoffs. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN
resultsA total of 9,153 HCWs with two or more QFT tests were included in the analysis. Of 8,227 individuals with a negative result, 4.4% (n = 361) converted their QFT result over 2 years. A total of 261 (72.3%) of the HCWs with conversions underwent repeat short-term testing after the first positive result with 64.8% reverting (n = 169). An IFN-γ cutoff of 5.3 IU/ml or higher (manufacturer's cutoff is ≥0.35 IU/ml) yielded a conversion rate of 0.4%, equal to our institution's historical TST conversion rate.
conclusionsThe manufacturer's definition of QFT conversion results in an inflated conversion rate that is incompatible with our low-risk setting. A significantly higher QFT cutoff value is needed to match the historical TST conversion rate. Nonreproducible conversions in most converters suggested false-positive results.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.