ArticleThorax2004
Transmission of tuberculosis from smear negative patients: a molecular epidemiology study.
Article in Thorax, 2004. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT02043067 (Enhanced TB Screening to Determine the Prevalence and Incidence of TB in a Cohort of HIV Clinic Patients in Lusaka, Zambia), which is not on this map. Cited by 84 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Enhanced TB Screening to Determine the Prevalence and Incidence of TB in a Cohort of HIV Clinic Patients in Lusaka, Zambia
Who cites it
84 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Laboratory Cross-Contamination of Mycobacterium tuberculosis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Lung · 2019Pooled it
- Clinical Impact of the Line Probe Assay and Xpert® MTB/RIF Assay in the Presumptive Diagnosis of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis in Brazil: A Pragmatic Clinical Trial.Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical · 2022Trial
- Trial
- Diagnostic value of lesion-targeted BALF immune biomarkers combined with T-SPOT.TB for smear-negative pulmonary tuberculosis.Microbiology spectrum · 2026Article
- Genetic Diversity and Molecular Epidemiology ofPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Efficacy of Xpert MTB/RIF assay in detecting Mycobacterium tuberculosis in samples with different results by smear and culture in a coastal city with high incidence of tuberculosis.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Transmission characteristics in Tuberculosis by WGS: nationwide cross-sectional surveillance in China.Emerging microbes & infections · 2024Article
- Challenges in Developing a Controlled Human Tuberculosis Challenge Model.Current topics in microbiology and immunology · 2024Review
- Review
- Disease Transmission by Patients With Subclinical Tuberculosis.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2023Article
- The impact of COVID-19 on TB in Iran: An illustrative study.Journal of clinical tuberculosis and other mycobacterial diseases · 2023Article
- Evaluation of chest X-ray with automated interpretation algorithms for mass tuberculosis screening in prisons: a cross-sectional study.Lancet regional health. Americas · 2023Article
- Infectious and clinical tuberculosis trajectories: Bayesian modeling with case finding implications.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Review
- Clinically encountered growth phenotypes of tuberculosis-causing bacilli and theirFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2022Review
- Effect of sputum quality and role of XpertAfrican journal of laboratory medicine · 2022Article
- How much do smear-negative patients really contribute to tuberculosis transmissions? Re-examining an old question with new tools.EClinicalMedicine · 2022Article
- Xpert MTB/RIF Use Is Associated With Earlier Treatment Initiation and Culture Conversion Among Patients With Sputum Smear-Negative Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis.Open forum infectious diseases · 2021Article
- Association between serum PGEAnnals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2021Article
- Spatial clustering and genetic diversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolate among pulmonary tuberculosis suspected patients, Arsi Zone, Ethiopia.BMC pulmonary medicine · 2021Article
24 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundWhile smear positive patients with tuberculosis (TB) are considered more infectious than smear negative patients, the latter can also transmit TB.
methodsIn a molecular epidemiology study of 791 patients in the Greater Vancouver regional district, the number of episodes of TB transmission from two groups of smear negative clustered patients by RFLP (assumed to be involved in recent transmission) was estimated after assessing for potential bias. Group 1 (n = 79) included patients with pulmonary TB or pulmonary + extrapulmonary disease (PTB or PTB+EPTB); group 2 (n = 129) included all patients in group 1 + extrapulmonary cases alone.
resultsIn the total sample the mean (SD) age was 51 (21) years, 54.3% were male, and 17.0% of patients were clustered. Compared with smear negative patients, smear positive patients were more likely to be in a cluster (OR = 2.0, 95% CI 1.1 to 3.6) and to have had a history of ethanol abuse (OR = 2.7, 95% CI 1.0 to 6.7), diabetes mellitus (OR = 2.8, 95% CI 1.1 to 7.0), injection drug use (OR = 3.1, 95% CI 1.1 to 8.3), and to have had a previous hospital admission (OR = 8.5, 95% CI 5.1 to 14.0). The proportion of episodes of transmission from smear negative clustered patients ranged from 17.3% to 22.2% in group 1 and from 25% to 41% in group 2.
conclusionIn Greater Vancouver, smear negative cases appear responsible for at least one sixth of culture positive episodes of TB transmission.
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