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Alliance Brings Effective TB Test to State
In the last two decades, tuberculosis has made a disturbing comeback. To help keep the disease at bay, Dynacare Laboratories at Froedtert & Medical College recently began offering a new laboratory test to identify people with latent TB that is as effective and easier to undergo than the current TB skin test.
Normally, people visit the clinic twice, first to receive a TB antigen injection and two days later to have their skin “read” for signs of reaction. Unfortunately, according to Susan Koethe, PhD, Associate Medical Director, Dynacare, “We have seen that people often forget to return to have the skin test read.
The new test, called QuantiFERON –TB, is performed on a blood sample. Because it requires only one patient visit, the test completion rate is 100%. Also, since it is test-tube based, it yields fewer false positive results than the skin test. Dynacare is the only laboratory in the state that offers QuantiFERON –TB.
For more information, call Patricia Pomahac, MT (ASCP) SI at 414.805.3325.
QuantiFERON®-TB is available at Dynacare Laboratories, a cooperative venture of Froedtert and Dynacare, Inc.
Source: Froedtert Today Date: July 2004 |
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