Oxford, UK; 10th August 2007 – Oxford Immunotec Ltd., the T cell measurement company, today announced the report of a recent study demonstrating the reliability of T-SPOT.TB further confirming that it is not affected by a prior tuberculin skin test.
In this study taken from the European Respiratory Journal, the results show that T-SPOT.TB was not affected by the TST and was repeatedly negative. In contrast the study results show that the QuantiFERON®-TB Gold In-Tube test results changed from negative to positive in one third of these subjects.
Commenting on these results, Dr. Peter Wrighton-Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Oxford Immunotec said, “This report highlights the robustness of the T-SPOT.TB test compared to other tests used to identify TB infection. It confirms the results of earlier studies which have shown consistently that the T-SPOT.TB test alone is not affected by prior TST. This is an important feature of our test, especially as a number of TB control guidelines now recommend carrying out a TST followed by an interferon gamma test in those that are positive. This study indicates that only the T-SPOT.TB test will be unaffected by the earlier TST.”
