QFT Gold Sensitivity/Specificity study published in leading...

QFT Gold Sensitivity/Specificity study published in leading International Medical Journal
Cellestis is pleased to announce that an independent study has reported excellent results on the performance of the QuantiFERON-TB Gold assay (QFT-Gold).

Results using QFT Gold in a large sensitivity and specificity study were electronically published today, ahead of print, in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine (AJRCCM) , the official publication of the American Thoracic Society. The study was conducted in several sites across Japan by leading TB researchers. Lead investigator was Dr Toru Mori, Director of the Research Institute of Tuberculosis in Japan. The summary of this article can be viewed at the AJRCCM web-site by clicking here http://ajrccm.atsjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/200402-179OCv1.

Full copies of the article are available for subscribers of the journal.

Testing people with no identified risk for tuberculosis exposure, and all of whom had been BCG vaccinated (n=216), revealed the specificity of QFT-Gold was greater than 98%. This is a minimum figure, as TB infection cannot be excluded in the remaining 2%. Due to the very high level of false-positive responses in the low-risk group, the Mantoux skin test had extremely poor specificity and no diagnostic utility.

Sensitivity of QuantiFERON-TB Gold was determined to be 89% in 118 patients with confirmed tuberculosis disease and less than one week of TB treatment, compared to 66% for the Mantoux skin test. An important point was that QFT-Gold had no loss of sensitivity with advancing age of the subject, unlike the Mantoux skin test, where advancing age led to loss of sensitivity.

These results demonstrate the high degree of accuracy of the QuantiFERON-TB Gold assay, detecting only those with TB infection, and unlike the Mantoux skin test, not those merely BCG vaccinated. Cellestis is pleased to see this paper published in such a prominent medical journal, the first of what we believe will be a number of publications emerging from the many clinical studies of QFT-Gold completed to date.

http://www.cellestis.com/IRM/content/frame.html