Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32493779›Full record

ReviewJournal of clinical microbiology2020

Fourth-Generation QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus: What Is the Evidence?

Arena Shafeque, Jacob Bigio, Catherine A Hogan, Madhukar Pai, Niaz Banaei

Open access · greenAbstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Journal of clinical microbiology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
45citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
1.5field-weighted citation impact, top 10% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

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.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

45 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 83 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Evaluating the Cepheid Xpert TB/LTBI Research-Use-Only Assay for Detection of Active and Latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2026
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  6. Immune Sensitization toPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.

Arena ShafequeDepartment of Pathology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA.
Jacob BigioResearch Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Catherine A HoganDepartment of Pathology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA.
Madhukar PaiMcGill International TB Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Niaz BanaeiDepartment of Pathology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA nbanaei@stanford.edu.
Stanford University · USMcGill University · CAMcGill University Health Centre · CAStanford Health Care · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus (QFT-Plus) is the latest generation of interferon gamma release assays (IGRAs) to receive approval from the U.S. FDA, replacing its predecessor, QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube (QFT-GIT). The novelty of QFT-Plus is that it elicits a response from CD8 T cells, in addition to CD4 T cells, thus collecting a broader response from T-cell subsets than QFT-GIT. It was developed with the aim to improve the detection of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI), especially among recently exposed contacts, immunocompromised hosts, and young children. In this minireview, we summarize the performance of QFT-Plus compared with that of QFT-GIT among active tuberculosis (TB) patients (a surrogate for LTBI patients), high-risk populations, and low-risk individuals based on recent publications. Studies comparing QFT-Plus to QFT-GIT currently do not support the superior performance of QFT-Plus in individuals with active TB and LTBI. The difference in sensitivity between QFT-Plus and QFT-GIT in active TB patients was not significant in nearly all studies and ranged from -4.0 to 2.0%. Among high-risk groups, the agreement between QFT-Plus and QFT-GIT was 89.9 to 96.0% (kappa coefficient range, 0.80 to 0.91). The specificity in the low-risk population was slightly lower for QFT-Plus than for QFT-GIT, with the difference ranging from -7.4 to 0%. Further studies are needed to accurately evaluate the sensitivity of QFT-Plus in immunocompromised hosts and children. In addition, further evidence is required to validate a modified interpretation of QFT-Plus for the identification of false-positive results in low-risk health care workers.

Indexed as

Latent TuberculosisTuberculosisChildChild, PreschoolHealth PersonnelHumansImmunocompromised HostInterferon-gamma Release TestsTuberculin TestIGRALTBIMycobacterium tuberculosisQuantiFERON-TB Gold In-TubeQuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus

Identifiers

PMID32493779
PMCPMC7448650
OpenAlexW3030789693

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.