Tuberculin Testing in Children

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Abstract
The investigation was carried out with a view to comparing the sensitivity of children to 3 forms of the tuberculin skin test[long dash]the Mantoux intradermal test, the Vollmer patch test, and the diagnostic tuberculin jelly test. As compared with the Mantoux test, the Vollmer patches used in this investigation appear to be unreliable to the point of being valueless. The reaction to the diagnostic tuberculin jelly varied markedly in the 2 series; in the hospital series 47% of positive reactors to 1/10,000 Mantoux reacted to jelly, whereas in the sanatorium series 94.8% reacted. Of the 21 cases that reacted to the Mantoux test only when performed with 1/1,000, one gave a positive reaction to the jelly, and none to the Vollmer patch test. It seems clear that the jelly is a less sensitive test than the Mantoux in the dilutions used here, and is found to be positive only in those cases with a relatively high degree of allergy to tuberculin.

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