Tuberculin Skin Test: Procedure and Interpretation

Abdulhamit ÇOLLAKa , Ali ÖZDEMİRb

aİstanbul University-Cerrahpaşa, Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pediatric Chest Diseases, İstanbul, Türkiye
bUniversity of Health Sciences Mersin City Training and Research Hospital, Department of Pediatric Chest Diseases, Mersin, Türkiye

ABSTRACT
Tuberculosis is still an important infectious disease in worldwide caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis). The bacillus commonly infects the lungs, and delayed diagnosis may have significant morbidity and mortality. M. tuberculosis culture is the gold standard for the diagnosis of tuberculosis disease. However, it takes time for bacterial growth and sputum culture cannot be achievable particularly in children. Therefore, additional tests require to confirm the diagnosis of the disease. The tuberculin skin test (TST) is a universal method for screening tuberculosis, but it does not completely diagnose the disease for various reasons. This test is based on a late hypersensitivity reaction to the tuberculin antigen. The test is not only positive in exposed individuals to M. tuberculosis but can be also positive in Bacillus-Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccinated humans and patients with nontuberculous mycobacterial infection. In addition, false negative results are major obstacle in immunocompromised individuals. Therefore, performing and interpretation of TST requires great attention and experience.
Keywords: Mycobacterium tuberculosis; tuberculin skin test

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