Table 2.
IFN-γ ELISPOT examination with different peptides of PBL samples from patients with PTBb
| Peptide(s) | Total no. of samplesa | No. of positive samples | Positivity rate (%) | Median SFP value for positive results |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| E6 | 481 | 377 | 78.38 | 282 |
| E7 | 521 | 390 | 74.86 | 221 |
| C14 | 480 | 268 | 55.83 | 272 |
| E6+E7 | 700 | 633 | 90.43 | 474 |
| E6+E7+C14 | 671 | 614 | 91.51 | 433 |
A total of 731 patients with confirmed PTB were enrolled. Among them, PBMCs from PBL samples of 202 PTB patients were stimulated by all peptides, and the rest were not stimulated by all stimuli because there were not enough cells.
Among the five groups, the E6+E7 and E6+E7+C14 assays had a much higher sensitivity for detecting patients with PTB than the other peptide assays. A Wilcoxon test was used to analyze the differences between single-peptide and peptide mixture groups. It was found that the difference between E6 and E6+E7 was not significant (P > 0.05). Significant differences were found between the following pairs: C14 and E6+E7, E7 and E6+E7, C14 and E6+E7+C14, E6 and E6+E7+C14, E7 and E6+E7+C14, and E6+E7 and E6+E7+C14 (P < 0.05).