ArticlePloS one2016
Prevalence and Diagnosis of Latent Tuberculosis Infection in Young Children in the Absence of a Gold Standard.
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 10 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- Performance of QuantiFERON tests for detecting latent tuberculosis infections: A Meta-analysis.Immunologic research · 2025Pooled it
- Prevention of tuberculosis in household members: estimates of children eligible for treatment.Bulletin of the World Health Organization · 2019Pooled it
- Risk Factors for Indeterminate Interferon-Gamma Release Assay for the Diagnosis of Tuberculosis in Children-A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2019Pooled it
- Comparative Diagnostic Performance of TST and IGRAs in the Diagnosis of Latent Tuberculosis Infection: A Systematic Review and Diagnostic Meta-Analysis.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- No need for a gold-standard test: on the mining of diagnostic test performance indices merely based on the distribution of the test value.BMC medical research methodology · 2023Article
- Know your tuberculosis epidemic-Is it time to add Mycobacterium tuberculosis immunoreactivity back into global surveillance?PLOS global public health · 2022Review
- Diagnosis of latent tuberculosis infection among pediatric household contacts of Iranian tuberculosis cases using tuberculin skin test, IFN- γ release assay and IFN-γ-induced protein-10.BMC pediatrics · 2021Article
- Tuberculosis infection in children visiting friends and relatives in countries with high incidence of tuberculosis: A study protocol.Medicine · 2020Article
- Identification of subclinical tuberculosis in household contacts using exposure scores and contact investigations.BMC infectious diseases · 2020Article
- PPE17 (Rv1168c) protein of Mycobacterium tuberculosis detects individuals with latent TB infection.PloS one · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionFor adequate disease control the World Health Organization has proposed the diagnosis and treatment of latent tuberculous infection (LTBI) in groups of risk of developing the disease such as children. There is no gold standard (GS) test for the diagnosis of LTBI. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of LTBI in young children in contact with a household case of tuberculosis (TB-HCC) and determine the accuracy and precision of the Tuberculin Skin Test (TST) and QuantiFERON-TB Gold in-tube (QFT) used in the absence of a GS.
methodsWe conducted a cross-sectional study in children up to 6 years of age in Manaus/Brazil during the years 2009-2010. All the children had been vaccinated with the BCG and were classified into two groups according to the presence of a TB-HCC or no known contact with tuberculosis (TB). The variables studied were: the TST and QFT results and the intensity and length of exposure to the index tuberculosis case. We used the latent class model to determine the prevalence of LTBI and the accuracy of the tests.
resultsFifty percent of the children with TB-HCC had LTBI, with the prevalence depending on the intensity and length of exposure to the index case. The sensitivity and specificity of TST were 73% [95% confidence interval (CI): 53-91] and 97% (95%CI: 89-100), respectively, versus 53% (95%CI: 41-66) and 81% (95%CI:71-90) for QFT. The positive predictive value of TST in children with TB-HCC was 91% (95%CI: 61-99), being 74% for QFT (95%CI: 47-95).
conclusionsThis is one of the first studies to estimate the prevalence of LTBI in children and the parameters of the main diagnostic tests using a latent class model. Our results suggest that children in contact with an index case have a high risk of infection. The accuracy and the predictive value of the two tests did not significantly differ. Combined use of the two tests showed scarce improvement in the diagnosis of LTBI.
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