Diaskintest or Mantoux?

Tuberculosis is a common disease that leads to the death of a large number of people. There is an opinion that people of certain strata of the population, for example, prisoners, alcoholics, persons without a certain place of residence or those who live in unsanitary conditions, can become ill with this dangerous illness. But in fact, an infection under certain circumstances can overtake anyone, despite its financial position and status in society. Infection does not always mean that a person is sick and needs urgent treatment. In a healthy body, the infection is suppressed by the immune system, but can become more active with reduced immunity. That is why an early diagnosis of the disease and prevention measures play an important role.

Types of skin tests for tuberculosis

At present, with the purpose of early detection of the disease in children, use Diaskintest or Mantoux test. These are skin tests that are officially authorized and their use is admitted to medical practice. When carrying out the Mantoux test, a special protein called tuberculin is injected under the skin. It is a kind of extract from the destroyed mycobacteria, which cause the disease. If the body has previously met with them, then the allergic reaction will start to develop and the injection site will turn red. This will give the doctor a basis for conclusions and decision-making on further actions.

Diaskintest is carried out in a similar way, but a synthetic protein is introduced into the skin, which is characteristic only of the causative agent of tuberculosis.

Diaskintest or Mantoux - which is better?

Any mother before every medical manipulation tries to get the maximum amount of information about her. And, of course, many questions arise about the features of the conduct and the Mantoux test, and Diaskintest.

Despite the fact that both studies are very similar in principle, their main difference in the accuracy of the results. The fact is that Mantu often gives false positive values, because the body can react not only to injection, but also to BCG vaccination .

But the results of Diaskintest in children are almost never false. Because of the use of synthetic protein, there is no possibility of reaction to the vaccine, which means that this test is more accurate. Therefore, if Diaskintest in a child is positive, then it accurately signals that he is infected with tuberculosis or already sick with it.

The reaction to these skin tests is evaluated after 3 days (72 hours). In the case of Mantoux, look at the size of redness. With Diaskintest, the norm for children is only a trace from the injection. This indicates the absence of infection.

There are situations when one child has a positive Mantoux reaction, and Diaskintest has given a negative result. This may indicate that the patient has been exposed to the infection or has many antibodies in the body after BCG vaccination, but there is no infection with tuberculosis.