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SkinCancerConnection.com

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Wednesday, November 25, 2009
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PPD skin test

Positive PPD skin test
Positive PPD skin test
PPD skin test
PPD skin test
Tuberculosis in the kidney
Tuberculosis in the kidney
Tuberculosis in the lung
Tuberculosis in the lung
Alternative Names

Purified protein derivative standard; TB skin test; Tuberculin skin test


What the risks are

There is a very small risk of severe redness and swelling of the arm in people who have had a previous positive PPD test and who have the test again. There also have been a few cases of this reaction in people who have not been tested before.


Special considerations

A positive skin test does not necessarily mean that a person has active tuberculosis. More tests will be done to check whether there is active disease.

Many people who were born outside the United States may have had a vaccine called "BCG," which can lead to a false-positive test result. However, many experts believe that a past BCG vaccination should not change the PPD result when the test is done 15 years after the vaccination.



Review Date: 09/28/2008
Reviewed By: David C. Dugdale, III, MD, Professor of Medicine, Division of General Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine; and Jatin M. Vyas, PhD, MD, Instructor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Assistant in Medicine, Division of Infectious Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.

A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, also known as the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission (www.urac.org).
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