ArticlePloS one2016
Utility of T-Cell Interferon-γ Release Assays for Etiological Diagnosis of Classic Fever of Unknown Origin in a High Tuberculosis Endemic Area--a pilot prospective cohort.
Article in PloS one, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 2 citations in OpenAlex.
- Long-Term Follow-Up of Patients With Classic Fever of Unknown Origin: Prognostic Outcomes and Management Strategies.Open forum infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Diagnostic Accuracy ofPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Analysis of Factors Influencing Diagnostic Accuracy of T-SPOT.TB for Active Tuberculosis in Clinical Practice.Scientific reports · 2017Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTuberculosis (TB), especially extrapulmonary TB is still the leading cause of fever of unknown origin (FUO) in China. However, diagnosis of TB still remains a challenge. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of T-SPOT.TB for etiological diagnosis of classic FUO in adult patients in a high TB endemic area.
methodsWe prospectively enrolled patients presenting with classic FUO in a tertiary referral hospital in Beijing, China, to investigate the diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, predictive values and likelihood ratio of T-SPOT.TB. Clinical assessment and T-SPOT.TB were performed. Test results were compared with the final confirmed clinical diagnosis.
results387 hospitalized patients (male n = 194, female n = 193; median age 46 (range 29-59) yrs) with classic FUO were prospectively enrolled into this study. These FUOs were caused by infection (n = 158, 40.8%), connective tissue disease (n = 82, 21.2%), malignancy (n = 41, 10.6%) and miscellaneous other causes (n = 31, 8.0%), and no cause was determined in 75 (19.4%) patients. 68 cases were diagnosed as active TB eventually. The sensitivity of T-SPOT.TB for the diagnosis of active TB was 70.6% (95%CI 58.9-80.1%), while specificity was 84.4% (95%CI 79.4-88.4%), positive predictive value was 55.8% (95%CI 45.3-65.8%), negative predictive value was 91.2% (95%CI 86.7-94.2%). Among these 68 active TB patients, 12 cases were culture or histology confirmed (11 cases with positive T-SPOT.TB, sensitivity was 91.7%) and 56 cases were clinically diagnosed (37 cases with positive T-SPOT.TB, sensitivity was 66.1%); 14 cases were pulmonary TB (13 cases with positive T-SPOT.TB, sensitivity was 92.9%) and 54 cases were extrapulmonary TB (35 cases with positive T-SPOT.TB, sensitivity was 64.8%).
conclusionsFor patients presenting with classic FUO in this TB endemic setting, T-SPOT.TB appears valuable for excluding active TB, with a high negative predictive value.
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