QuantiFERON to diagnose infection by Mycobacterium tuberculosis : Performance in infants and older children

Summary Objectives QuantiFERON value to diagnose tuberculosis (TB) in young children remains to be clarified. To this aim QF-TB-IT performance was evaluated in a large series of immunocompetent children that were stratified according to age and clinical conditions. Methods QF-TB-IT reactivity was analyzed in 226 immunocompetent children (0–15 years old): 31 were uninfected despite TB contact; 51 presented TB disease; 39 had Latent TB (LTBI) and 105 had TB disease suspected but an alternative diagnosis (TB excluded). Results QF-TB-IT specificity was 100% in TB excluded. In TB disease, low sensitivity of QF-TB-IT in infants (40%) increased with aging (77% in 1–