ArticleEClinicalMedicine2023
Predictive performance of interferon-gamma release assays and the tuberculin skin test for incident tuberculosis: an individual participant data meta-analysis.
Article in EClinicalMedicine, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
40 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Shorter Antitubercular Regimens Versus 9 Months of Isoniazid for Latent Tuberculosis in Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2026Pooled it
- Effectiveness of the primary Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine against the risk of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection and tuberculosis disease: a meta-analysis of individual participant data.The Lancet. Microbe · 2025Pooled it
- Evaluation of the diagnostic efficiency of fluorescenceFrontiers in medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Article
- Sex differences in tuberculosis incidence: a pooled analysis of 11 prospective cohort studies.EClinicalMedicine · 2026Article
- Optimizing Latent Tuberculosis Treatment Strategies Among Immigrants From High-Burden Settings.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Dynamic, quantitative ESAT6-CFP10 skin test for tuberculosis risk prediction: a large-scale, multi-center, prospective cohort study.The Lancet regional health. Western Pacific · 2026Article
- Accuracy and clinical utility of near-point-of-care blood tests for predicting incident tuberculosis in exposed contacts in high burden settings: a multi-country observational cohort study.Research square · 2026Article
- Bovine Tuberculosis as a Neglected Zoonotic Disease in Mexico and Latin America: Epidemiological Challenges, Diagnostic Insights, and Public Health Implications in Emerging Economies.Veterinary sciences · 2026Review
- Comparative tuberculosis risk in healthcare and educational workers: occupational synergy.ERJ open research · 2026Article
- Estimating the global burden of viable Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection: A mathematical modelling study.PLoS medicine · 2026Article
- Pre-screening village tuberculosis notification rates and the yield of interferon-gamma release assay testing in a rural health-examination campaign in Xinjiang, China.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Peripheral cytokine distinguish recent fromFrontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- A multiplex Mtb-specific FluoroSpot assay measuring IFNγ, IL-2, and TNF-secreting cells can improve accuracy and differentiation across the tuberculosis spectrum.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2025Article
- Predictive metabolite signatures for risk of progression to active TB from QuantiFERON supernatants of household contacts of TB patients.Emerging microbes & infections · 2025Article
- Perceptions of tuberculosis and home-based infection screening among families and providers in Madagascar: a qualitative study.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Electro-impedimetric detection of human anti-mycolate antibody biomarkers of TB before, during, and after treatment.Biomarkers in medicine · 2025Observational
- Artificial intelligence for tuberculosis control: a scoping review of applications in public health.Journal of global health · 2025Article
- Prevalence and Risk Factors of Latent Tuberculosis Infection Detected by IGRA in Patients with Immune-Mediated Inflammatory Diseases Before and During Biologic DMARD Therapy (TITAN Study).Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- A Comparison of Tests for Detecting Prior Exposure toVaccines · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
34 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Background: Evidence on the comparative performance of purified protein derivative tuberculin skin tests (TST) and interferon-gamma release assays (IGRA) for predicting incident active tuberculosis (TB) remains conflicting. We conducted an individual participant data meta-analysis to directly compare the predictive performance for incident TB disease between TST and IGRA to inform policy. Methods: We searched Medline and Embase from 1 January 2002 to 4 September 2020, and studies that were included in previous systematic reviews. We included prospective longitudinal studies in which participants received both TST and IGRA and estimated performance as hazard ratios (HR) for the development of all diagnoses of TB in participants with dichotomised positive test results compared to negative results, using different thresholds of positivity for TST. Secondary analyses included an evaluation of the impact of background TB incidence. We also estimated the sensitivity and specificity for predicting TB. We explored heterogeneity through pre-defined sub-group analyses (e.g. country-level TB incidence). Publication bias was assessed using funnel plots and Egger's test. This review is registered with PROSPERO, CRD42020205667. Findings: We obtained data from 13 studies out of 40 that were considered eligible (N = 32,034 participants: 36% from countries with TB incidence rate ≥100 per 100,000 population). All reported data on TST and QuantiFERON Gold in-Tube (QFT-GIT). The point estimate for the TST was highest with higher cut-offs for positivity and particularly when stratified by bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine (BCG) status (15 mm if BCG vaccinated and 5 mm if not [TST Interpretation: IGRA appears to have higher predictive performance than the TST in low TB incidence countries, but the difference was driven by a single study. Any advantage in clinical performance may be small, given the numerically similar positive and negative predictive values. Both IGRA and TST had lower performance in countries with high TB incidence. Test choice should be contextual and made considering operational and likely clinical impact of test results. Funding: YH, IA, and MXR were supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), United Kingdom (RP-PG-0217-20009). MQ was supported by the Medical Research Council [MC_UU_00004/07].
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