Culture is an Imperfect and Heterogeneous Reference Standard in Pediatric Tuberculosis

Confirmation of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) in children remains a diagnostic challenge due to the combination of its non-specific signs and symptoms, paucibacillary nature, difficulties obtaining adequate sputum specimens and lack of an appropriately sensitive diagnostic test1. The roll out of Gene Xpert ® MTB/RIF (Xpert, Cepheid, USA) has potential to advance childhood TB diagnostics. To inform the World Health Organization (WHO) updated policy, a systematic review and meta-analysis of Xpert performance in childhood TB estimated that Xpert confirms a diagnosis in 62-66% of culture-positive pediatr ic cases and affords a 36-44% higher sensitivity compared to microscopy.
Source: Tuberculosis - Category: Respiratory Medicine Authors: Source Type: research