ArticlePloS one2015
QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube assay for screening arthritis patients for latent tuberculosis infection before starting anti-tumor necrosis factor treatment.
Article in PloS one, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Guideline
- Pooled it
- Comparing interferon-gamma release assays with tuberculin skin test for identifying latent tuberculosis infection that progresses to active tuberculosis: systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC infectious diseases · 2017Pooled it
- Trial
- Incidence of active tuberculosis in Korean patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a comparison between tumor necrosis factor inhibitors and tofacitinib.Journal of rheumatic diseases · 2026Article
- Comprehensive Review of Genital Tuberculosis: Epidemiological Patterns, Causal Agents, Diagnostic Strategies, Symptomatology and Fertility Consequences.Reproductive sciences (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) · 2025Review
- Latent tuberculosis infection screening in patients with inflammatory bowel disease: a nationwide retrospective cohort study in South Korea comparing IGRA alone versus a combination of TST and IGRA.Intestinal research · 2025Article
- Do the drug doses of conventional synthetic DMARDs used for the treatment of biologic/targeted-synthetic DMARDs naive rheumatoid arthritis patients affect QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus test results?Rheumatology international · 2023Article
- Tuberculin skin test before biologic and targeted therapies: does the same rule apply for all?Rheumatology international · 2022Article
- A Rhodamine-based Fluorescent Chemodosimeter for AuJournal of fluorescence · 2021Article
- Transmembrane TNF and Its Receptors TNFR1 and TNFR2 in Mycobacterial Infections.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Review
- QuantiFERON®-TB Gold In-Tube test can be used for screening latent tuberculosis before biological treatment in a Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG)-vaccinated country: the HUR-BIO single-center real-life results.Clinical rheumatology · 2021Article
- Risk of Tuberculosis Development in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis Receiving Targeted Therapy: a Prospective Single Center Cohort Study.Journal of Korean medical science · 2021Article
- The necessity, efficacy and safety of biologics in juvenile idiopathic arthritis.Northern clinics of Istanbul · 2020Article
- Comparative Evaluation of QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube and QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus in Diagnosis of Latent Tuberculosis Infection in Immunocompromised Patients.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2018Article
- IGRA testing in patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases: which factors influence the results?Rheumatology international · 2018Article
- Article
- Article
- Article
- Screening Optimization of Latent Tuberculosis Infection in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients.Arthritis · 2015Article
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPatients undergoing anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) treatment are at an increased risk of reactivating a latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI). This study evaluated the effectiveness of the QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube (QFT) assay for diagnosing LTBI in arthritis patients undergoing anti-TNF treatment.
methodsWe enrolled 342 consecutive patients from August 2007 to October 2013: 176 (51.5%) patients with ankylosing spondylitis and 166 (48.5%) with rheumatoid arthritis. Screening tests included tuberculin skin test (TST) and QFT assay. Positive QFT results, regardless of TST results, were considered an indicator for LTBI treatment.
resultsBacillus Calmette-Guérin scars were found in 236 (69.0%) patients. Of 342 patients, TST and QFT were positive in 122 (35.7%) and 103 (30.1%) patients, respectively, and discordant in 101 (29.5%) patients. During a median follow-up duration of 41.7 months, five patients (1.5%) developed TB in a median of 20.8 months after initiation of anti-TNF treatment (428/100,000 person-years). TB did not occur in 62 TST+/QFT+ patients who received LTBI treatment. Of 41 TST-/QFT+ patients who received LTBI treatment, one (2.4%) developed TB 20.5 months after starting anti-TNF treatment (705/100,000 person-years). Of 60 TST+/QFT- patients who did not receive LTBI treatment, two (3.3%) developed TB 20.8 and 22.0 months after starting anti-TNF treatment (871/100,000 person-years). Of 179 TST-/QFT- patients, two (1.1%) developed TB 7.2 and 22.7 months, respectively, after initiating anti-TNF treatment (341/100,000 person-years). TB incidence rate during the follow-up period did not differ among TST-/QFT+, TST+/QFT-, and TST-/QFT- patients (P = 0.661).
conclusionQFT might be used instead of TST for diagnosing LTBI in patients before starting anti-TNF therapy in countries, such as Korea, where the TB prevalence is intermediate and the BCG vaccination is mandatory at birth. In the absence of a true gold standard test for LTBI, however, there is still a risk of TB development during anti-TNF treatment.
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