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To the Editor: Dr Mazurek and colleagues¹ concluded that a whole-blood interferon (IFN-) assay was comparable to tuberculin skin testing (TST) in the detection of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI). However, the results fail to support their conclusions about the sensitivity or specificity of this assay. The operating characteristics of a new test should be derived by comparison to a reference standard, TST in this case. Results of TST of 15 mm or greater or less than 5 mm reliably identify the presence and absence of LTBI, respectively.² Thus, the authors should demonstrate that the IFN- assay is consistently positive when TST results are 15 mm or greater and negative when TST results are less than 5 mm. These data are not presented, but the absence of a positive assay result in 36% of patients with tuberculosis disease (group 4) and the fact that half of the subjects in the . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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Comparison of a Whole-Blood Interferon Assay With Tuberculin Skin Testing for Detecting Latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection
Gerald H. Mazurek, Philip A. LoBue, Charles L. Daley, John Bernardo, Alfred A. Lardizabal, William R. Bishai, Michael F. Iademarco, and James S. Rothel
JAMA. 2001;286(14):1740-1747.
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