ArticleJournal of occupational medicine and toxicology (London, England)2017
QFT-Plus: a plus in variability? - Evaluation of new generation IGRA in serial testing of students with a migration background in Germany.
Article in Journal of occupational medicine and toxicology (London, England), 2017. 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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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.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 49 citations in OpenAlex.
- Assessing the Diagnostic Performance of New Commercial Interferon-γ Release Assays for Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2023Pooled it
- Comparing the diagnostic performance of QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus with QFT-GIT, T-SPOT.TB and TST: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC infectious diseases · 2023Pooled it
- Comparing the Diagnostic Performance of QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus to Other Tests of Latent Tuberculosis Infection: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2021Pooled it
- Effect of Variability on Interferon-Gamma Release Assay Performance: A Quantitative Analysis.Annals of laboratory medicine · 2026Article
- A detailed analysis of borderline results in the QuantiFERON-TB Gold-Plus assay incorporating longitudinal follow-up: intermediate-burden setting.Microbiology spectrum · 2026Article
- Preliminary performance of the VIDAS TB-IGRA as an aid in the diagnosis of individuals infected withJournal of clinical microbiology · 2025Article
- Effect of Smoking on Longitudinal Interferon γ Release Assay Results Among Close Contacts of People with Pulmonary Tuberculosis.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2025Observational
- Multiple cytokine analysis based on QuantiFERON-TB gold plus in different tuberculosis infection status: an exploratory study.BMC infectious diseases · 2024Article
- The Impact of Borderline Quantiferon-TB Gold Plus Results for Latent Tuberculosis Screening under Routine Conditions in a Low-Endemicity Setting.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2021Article
- Role of interferon gamma release assay in the diagnosis and management ofBMJ open ophthalmology · 2021Review
- Fourth-Generation QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus: What Is the Evidence?Journal of clinical microbiology · 2020Review
- Risk Analysis of Latent Tuberculosis Infection among Health Workers Compared to Employees in Other Sectors.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Article
- Comparison of the QuantiFERON-TB and tuberculin skin test for detection of latent tuberculosis infection in cancer patients in a developing country.ERJ open research · 2019Article
- Curving Tuberculosis: Current Trends and Future Needs.Annals of global health · 2019Review
- 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
- QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus Is a More Sensitive Screening Tool than QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube for Latent Tuberculosis Infection among Older Adults in Long-Term Care Facilities.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2018Article
- Performance and variability of QuantiFERON Gold Plus assay associated with phlebotomy type.PloS one · 2018Article
- Prevalence of latent tuberculosis infection among foreign students in Lübeck, Germany tested with QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube and QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus.Journal of occupational medicine and toxicology (London, England) · 2017Article
- A borderline range for Quantiferon Gold In-Tube results.PloS one · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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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
backgroundCurrently available Interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs) show a considerable variability in serial testing for latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI). This study offers first results for the new generation IGRA QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus (QFT-Plus) introduced in 2015 in comparison with its predecessor QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube (QFT-GIT) from serial testing of students with a migration background at German universities.
methodsForty-one students were selected from a previous study. All students with a positive IGRA were asked and 11 agreed to participate in this cohort study. Additionally 30 students with negative IGRA results were selected by chance. Weekly testing with QFT-Plus and QFT-GIT was performed in all individuals over a 4-week period. IGRA variability was evaluated by calculating conversion and reversion rates.
resultsFrom 41 participants a total number of 163 serial measurements were analyzed for each IGRA, leading to 122 possible IGRA changes each. QFT-Plus had four conversions and two reversions leading to a conversion rate of 4.3% (4 of 93 possible conversions, 95% CI 1.4-11.3%) and reversion rate of 6.9% (2 of 29 possible reversions, 95% CI 1.2-24.2%). QFT-GIT had 2 conversions and 1 reversion causing slightly lower rates with 2.2% conversions (2 of 91, 95% CI 0.4-8.5%) and 3.2% reversions (1 of 31, 95% CI 0.2-18.5%). Inconsistent IGRA results occurred in 4 subjects for QFT-Plus (8 stable positives, 29 stable negatives) and in 2 subjects for QFT-GIT (9 stable positives, 30 stable negatives). Agreement between the two IGRAs was 95.1% (
conclusionThis study confirms occurrence of conversions and reversions for the new QFT-Plus in serial testing of a high-risk cohort in a low-incidence setting with improbable new TB contact during the study. QFT-Plus conversion and reversion rates were slightly higher than for the QFT-GIT but overall they were lower for both IGRAs than in other studies that investigated IGRA variability.
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Registered trials
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.