TY - JOUR T1 - Diagnosis of tuberculosis: principles and practice of using interferon-γ release assays (IGRAs) JF - Breathe JO - breathe SP - 302 LP - 309 DO - 10.1183/18106838.0504.302 VL - 5 IS - 4 AU - A. Lalvani AU - M. Thillai Y1 - 2009/06/01 UR - http://breathe.ersjournals.com/content/5/4/302.abstract N2 - Educational aims To provide an overview of T-cell interferon-γ release assays (IGRAs) used for detection of tuberculosis (TB) infection. To outline how these tests can be used in clinical practice for the assessment of latent TB infection (LTBI) and active TB. Summary One in three people worldwide are infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis; the vast majority have latent infection. Tracking this latent reservoir is the cornerstone of TB control and prevention in the developed world [1]. But standard tools for diagnosis and prevention are more than 100 years old and inadequate to control the global TB epidemic [2]. However, the last decade has witnessed a major advance in the diagnosis of M. tuberculosis infection [3–5]. T-cell IGRAs are the first practical output of a decade of reinvigorated basic science research into TB and are now revolutionising diagnosis and screening of LTBI. ER -