A comparison of the responsiveness to four new tuberculins among Indonesian patients with pulmonary tuberculosis and healthy subjects.

Multiple skin testing with reagents (new tuberculins) prepared from different mycobacterial species places individuals in three categories: those reacting to all reagents (Category 1), those reacting to none (Category 2) and those reacting to some but not all (Category 3). This pattern of reactivity led to the postulate that Category 3 individuals respond only to those antigens that are unique to each individual species, while Category 1 individuals respond to antigens common to all mycobacteria, though a few of the latter may be responding independently to the specific antigens of all the reagents used. The percentage of patients with tuberculosis responding to all of four new tuberculins was much lower than among healthy subjects--a pattern of reactivity observed previously in leprosy. These findings strongly suggest that patients with mycobacterial diseases fail to respond to shared mycobacterial antigens.