Diagnostic performance of GM-CSF and IL-2 in response to long-term specific-antigen cell stimulation in patients with active and latent tuberculosis infection

GM-CSF and IL-2 provided the best yield to differentiate active TB from latent TB and from TB uninfected, respectively, with higher specificities than that reported for IGRAs. However, none of both resulted sensitive enough to be used as a stand-alone biomarker for active TB.