Comparison of tuberculin skin test and quantiferon-TB gold in tube test for diagnosis of latent tuberculosis infection in health care workers: A cross sectional study

Objective: to compare the diagnostic efficacy and agreement of the traditional tuberculin skin test with quantiferon-tuberculosis gold in-tube test for latent tuberculosis infection in healthcare workers. methods: the cross-sectional analytical study was conducted between march 1 and 31,2008,at a specialist tuberculosis hospital in istanbul,turkey,and comprised healthcare workers who had been employed for at least one year at the hospital and volunteered to take part. tuberculin skin test and quantiferon-tuberculosis gold in-tube test were both performed simultaneously and their results were compared using spss 12. results: out of 34 subjects,20(58.8%) had a positive tuberculin skin test,and 7(20.6%) had a positive quantiferon-tuberculosis gold in-tube test. the two tests agreed in only 15(44.1%) cases and disagreed in 19(55.9%). in 16(47.1%) subjects,the quantiferon-tuberculosis gold in-tube test was negative and tuberculin skin test was positive,while in 3(8.8%) participants quantiferon-tuberculosis gold in-tube test was positive and tuberculin skin test was negative. kappa test revealed discordance between the two tests (κ=-0.13; p=0.92). conclusion: latent tuberculosis infection prevalence was higher based on tuberculin skin test than quantiferon-tuberculosis gold in-tube test. the results of the two tests were discordant. © 2016,university of economics - prague. all reserved.