OBJECTIVE To evaluate the sensitivity of acid-fast sputum smears in the diagnosis of pulmonary Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB). DESIGN Retrospective chart and radiographic film review. SETTING Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in New York City. PATIENTS All patients with positive sputum cultures for MTB during 1989 to 1991, including 100 with HIV, and 76 without HIV infection...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Sputum acid-fast bacilli (AFB) microscopy services are not available in all health facilities. Alternative procedures are needed to transport sputum samples to the diagnostic centres for detection of AFB. The objective of the present study was to evaluate sputum smears made by pot-method with the direct smears made immediately after sputum collection by Ziehl-Neelsen (ZN...

SETTING The potential cost-effectiveness of improved diagnostic tests for tuberculosis (TB) in resource-limited settings is unknown. OBJECTIVE To estimate the incremental cost-effectiveness of a hypothetical new point-of-care TB diagnostic test in South Africa, Brazil and Kenya. DESIGN Decision-analysis model, adding four diagnostic interventions (sputum smear microscopy, new test, smear pl...

BACKGROUND In South Asia, it is estimated that 80% of patients choose to attend a private facility for their healthcare needs. Although patients generally believe that the private-sector provides high quality services, private diagnostic laboratories are largely unregulated and little is known about the accuracy of results provided. This study assesses the accuracy of sputum smear microscopy fo...

Sputum induction can aid tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis, but adult data from HIV-endemic environments are limited, and it is unclear how performance varies depending on the clinical context (in-patient versus outpatient), HIV status and whether patients are smear-negative or sputum-scarce. 696 adults with suspected smear-negative or sputum-scarce TB from Cape Town (South Africa) were referred for ...

The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of the Gene-Xpert MTB/RIF sputum test for diagnosing pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) among patients sputum acid-fast bacillus (AFB) smear negative results in Thailand, a country with a high prevalence of pulmonary tuberculosis. We studied 151 patients who presented to Srinagarind Hospital, Khon Kaen, Thailand with a 2 week or more history ...

The aim of this study was to assess the diagnostic efficacy Xpert MTB/RIF assay in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) diagnosis pulmonary tuberculosis sputum-smear negative patients. This observational case series conducted a tertiary base institute Bangladesh from July 2017 June 2019. All patients with suspected who were negative, irrespective age and gender included study. BAL fluid thus obtained e...

BACKGROUND Sputum smear microscopy is commonly used for diagnosing tuberculosis (TB). Although patients with sputum smear-negative TB are less infectious than patients with smear-positive TB, they also contribute to TB transmission. The objective of this study was to determine the proportion of TB transmission events caused by patients with smear-negative pulmonary TB in The Netherlands. METH...

We sought to establish if smokers on anti-tuberculosis treatment are more likely to have a prolonged period of infectivity, compared to non-smoking tuberculosis patients, in a low tuberculosis prevalence country. We conducted a cross-sectional, retrospective study in Ireland that recruited 53 microbiologically confirmed cases of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB). The age-sex adjusted odds ratios (AO...