Until some time ago, the tuberculin skin test was the only available screening test for the diagnosis of tubercular infection. Now the new interferon-? release assay QuantiFERON-TB Gold shows promise of greater accuracy in the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis-infected subjects. The aim of our study was to evaluate the use of QuantiFERONTB Gold in children and to verify its agreement with...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate whether a policy to treat latent tuberculosis identified by annual tuberculin sensitivity testing is effective for tuberculosis control in human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients in Hong Kong. DESIGN Historical cohort study. SETTING Integrated Treatment Centre, Department of Health, Hong Kong. PATIENTS Patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus withou...

BACKGROUND In Hong Kong there has been nearly universal neonatal BCG vaccination coverage since 1980. METHOD 21 113 schoolchildren aged 6-9 years were skin tested with one unit of tuberculin (PPD RT-23) using the intradermal technique during a routine BCG revaccination programme. Information on sex, date of birth, date of tuberculin testing, and tuberculin reaction size at 72 hours was retrie...

In vivo and in vitro properties of the Transfer Factor (TF) and Migration Inhibition Factor (MIF) obtained from 2,4-dinitrofluorobenzene (2,4-DNFB) and tuberculin systems were studied simultaneously. Purified fractions of TF and MIF were obtained by Geon-Pevikon block electrophoresis and Sephadex G-200 exclusion chromatography. The physical and biological properties of these purified fractions ...

The purified protein derivative of tuberculin (PPD tuberculin) stimulates approximately one of two lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-activated B-cell blasts of C57BL/6J nu/nu spleen cells to continued clonal growth and maturation to IgM and IgG secretion. It alwo stimulates background, in vivo-activated large cells of normal C57BL/6J nu/nu spleen to growth and Ig secretion, at a frequency of approximate...

One hundred and fifteen scar positive, BCG vaccinated children between the ages of 2-12 years were tuberculin tested. Monotest purified tuberculin test kit from Institute Merieux France was used. This is a nine point punch and results were read in 2-4 days. One hundred and one reported for reading and 52 were tuberculin positive. 50% positivity is rather low following vaccination. The reasons c...

REFERENCES 1 Leyten EMS, Prins C, Bossink AWJ, et al. Effect of tuberculin skin testing on a Mycobacterium tuberculosis-specific interferon-c assay. Eur Respir J 2007; 29: 1212–1216. 2 National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. Tuberculosis: clinical diagnosis and management of tuberculosis, and measures for its prevention and control. Clinical Guideline 33. National Institute for C...

Tuberculin shock due to inoculation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigens in patients with tuberculosis is a serious syndrome originally described over 100 years ago by Robert Koch. Here, we present experimental evidence that a single M. tuberculosis recombinant protein, CFP-10, triggers this syndrome. Intradermal inoculation of CFP-10 elicits in M. tuberculosis-infected mice high levels of se...

1 Wang L, Turner MO, Elwood RK, et al. A meta-analysis of the effect of Bacille Calmette Guerin vaccination on tuberculin skin test measurements. Thorax 2002;57:804–9. 2 Bosman MC, Swai OB, Kwamanga DO, et al. National tuberculin survey of Kenya, 1986–1990. Int J Tuberc Lung Dis 1998;2:272–80. 3 Bruins J, Gribnau JH, Bwire R. Investigation into typical and atypical tuberculin sensitivity in the...

Harris and Harris ( 8) studied the influence of general treatment with cortisone and ACTH on the tuberculin reaction in guinea-pigs and rabpits. They found that these hormones inhibit the local and general reactions to tuberculin but do not prevent the Arthus phenomenon. As soon as the treatment was stopped, the hypersensitivity reappeared within 4 days. Derbes and collaborators (4) found that ...