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Article: Can you trust the TB blood test? Questions linger.
- Article from:
- Hospital Employee Health
- Article date:
- December 1, 2006
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 A Thomson Healthcare Company. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Can you trust the TB blood test? Questions linger
Hospitals slow to warn to switch
After years of struggling with the vagaries of the tuberculosis skin test, you might think that hospitals would embrace a new technology. But the blood test has been slow to catch on.
Cost and laboratory barriers likely will be resolved as new versions of the test obtain wider distribution. But TB experts want to know: Would you put more faith in this test than the skin test to detect seroconversions without producing false-positives?
A study is under way that may provide the convincing evidence to increase use of the TB blood test. The Tuberculosis ...