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. 2022 Mar 10;17(3):e0264982.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0264982. eCollection 2022.

A prevalence study in Guadalajara, Mexico, comparing tuberculin skin test and QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube

Arturo Plascencia Hernández  1   2 , Rodrigo M González Sánchez  1   2 , Iván I Hernández Cañaveral  1 , Antonio Luévanos Velázquez  1   2 , Pedro A Martínez Arce  1   2 , Alexander González Díaz  3 , Manuel Sandoval Díaz  4 , Yaxsier de Armas Rodríguez  3 , Edilberto González Ochoa  3 , Héctor Raúl Pérez Gómez  1
Affiliations

A prevalence study in Guadalajara, Mexico, comparing tuberculin skin test and QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube

Arturo Plascencia Hernández et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is a prevalent disease throughout the world. The extent of TB illness in childhood is not clear; recent data shows that 10-20% of the cases are found in children under 15 years old. In 2017, 1 million children developed the disease, of which 9% were co-infected with HIV.

Methods: A cross-sectional study that analyzed 48 children diagnosed with HIV-infection in Guadalajara, Mexico. The tuberculin skin test (TST) and QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube test (QFT) were performed and compared to diagnose latent TB infection (LTBI).

Results: The average age was 9 years old (± 4), with an age range of 1-16 years; the 6-12-year-old group predominated with 50% of cases. 27 patients (56%) were male; 83% had received the BCG vaccination and 23% had a history of being contacts of TB cases. In the study, 40 patients (83%) were without immunosuppression; seven (15%) with moderate immunosuppression, and only one patient had severe immunodeficiency. Overall, 3 of the 48 children (6.2%) had a positive TST, while 8 out of 48 (16.6%) had a positive QFT. The concordance between the two tests was 89.6% (43/48) with Kappa = 0.5 (95% CI, 0.14-0.85).

Conclusions: The QFT test represents an opportunity in the diagnosis of LTBI, particularly in pediatric HIV- patients. This is the first study that compares the two tests (TST and QFT) in children with HIV-infection in Guadalajara, Mexico.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

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