Why the study?
Does merthiolate as a preservative in tuberculin tests influence the frequency of positive reactions in healthy young adults?
Does merthiolate as a preservative in tuberculin tests influence the frequency of positive reactions in healthy young adults?
Merthiolate should not be added to intracutaneous test solutions as it causes false positive reactions and interferes with test evaluation.
Merthiolate may increase false-positive tuberculin reactions; leaves open whether preservative-free formulations improve test accuracy.
Merthiolate (thimerosal) gives a high frequency of positive reactions when tested epicutaneously and intracutaneously in young adults. To Swedish old tuberculin (OT) merthiolate is added as a preservative. The reactions to intracutaneously injected OT, merthiolate and purified protein derivate (PPD) has been compared in 412 healthy young adults. A positive reaction to merthiolate was recorded in 15%. It was found that merthiolate influenced the reactions in 63 of the 163 positive OT tests. Consequently, merthiolate should not be added to intracutaneous test solutions, since this additive may interfere with the evaluation of positive reactions.
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Hansson et al. (1971) studied this question.
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