The interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA) was significantly more sensitive than a tuberculin skin test as an adjunct tuberculosis diagnosis of children aged 5 years and older, according to data from a population-based study of 778 cases.
IGRAs have shown greater specificity than tuberculin skin tests (TSTs), but data on their sensitivity to TB in children are limited, wrote Alexander W. Kay, MD, of the California Department of Public Health and his colleagues in a study published in Pediatrics.
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Children younger than 1 year of age and those with CNS disease were significantly more likely to have indeterminate IGRA results, the researchers noted.
The study results were limited by the use of mainly enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay–based IGRA, which limited the data on enzyme-linked immunospot tests, the researchers said. The findings also were limited by the small number of children younger than 5 years.
However, the study is the largest North American analysis of IGRA in children, and based on the findings, “we argue that an IGRA should be considered the test of choice when evaluating children 5-18 years old for TB disease in high-resource, low-TB burden settings,” Dr. Kay and his associates wrote.
The study was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Coauthor Shamim Islam, MD, disclosed financial support from Qiagen, maker of the QuantiFERON test. Dr. Kay and the other investigators had no financial conflicts to disclose.
SOURCE: Kay A et al. Pediatrics. 2018 May 4. doi: 10.1542/peds.2017-3918.