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A new interesting article has been published in Clin Chim Acta. 2019 Dec; 499:64-69. doi: 10.1016/j.cca.2019.08.022. Epub 2019 Aug 24. and titled:

Application of IFN-γ/IL-2 FluoroSpot assay for distinguishing active tuberculosis from non-active tuberculosis: A cohort study.

Authors of this article are:

Zhang L, Wan S, Ye S, Cheng X, Zhang Y, Shi X, Zhou B, Sun X, Liu X.

A summary of the article is shown below:

Currently available Interferon-γ release assay cannot reliably differentiate active TB (ATB) from non-active TB (non-ATB). This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the IFN-γ/IL-2 FluoroSpot assay, which can simultaneously detect IFN-γ and IL-2 secretion, for differentiating ATB from non-ATB. 191 suspected ATB patients with positive T-SPOT.TB results were consecutively recruited. 64 (33.5%) participants had ATB, including 22 (34.4%) microbiologically or histologically confirmed TB and 42 (65.6%) clinically diagnosed TB. 119 (62.3%) cases were non-ATB and 8 (4.2%) were clinically indeterminate. After being stimulated with ESAT-6 and CFP-10 antigens, the median frequency and proportion of IFN-γ+IL-2- T cells were significantly higher in the ATB group than the non-ATB group (P < .001). The areas under the ROC curves of IFN-γ+IL-2- T cells were larger than those of total IFN-γ+ T cells (0.788 vs. 0.739, p = .323). With a cutoff value of 25 SFCs/250,000 PBMCs for frequency, sensitivity and specificity of this assay were 73.4% and 69.8% respectively. When combining the frequency and proportions of IFN-γ+IL-2- T cells, the sensitivity and specificity were increased to 95.3% in parallel testing and 83.2% in serial testing respectively. In conclusion, IFN-γ/IL-2 FluoroSpot assay is conducive for the diagnosis of ATB in patients with positive T-SPOT.TB results.Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Check out the article’s website on Pubmed for more information:

This article is a good source of information and a good way to become familiar with topics such as: Diagnosis; Fluorospot; Interferon-gamma; Interleukin-2; Tuberculosis.

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