The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 280 No 7494 p329
22 March 2008

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Test speeds up TB diagnosis

A new T-cell-based interferon-g release assay can rule out tuberculosis infection within days rather than weeks and has 99 per cent sensitivity when used in combination with tuberculin skin testing (Annals of Internal Medicine 2008;148:325).

UK researchers tested the ELISpot-Plus assay in diagnosing 389 patients with suspected active TB. The test can distinguish TB infection from BCG vaccination because it incorporates a novel antigen — Rv3879c — that reacts with T cells induced by infection.