ArticleAmerican journal of respiratory and critical care medicine2013
Cough aerosols of Mycobacterium tuberculosis predict new infection: a household contact study.
Article in American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 95 papers, 4 of them syntheses 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.
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Who cites it
95 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 158 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of Respiratory Isolation for Tuberculosis to Reduce Community-based Transmission: A Systematic Review.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2025Pooled it
- Effectiveness of the primary Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine against the risk of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection and tuberculosis disease: a meta-analysis of individual participant data.The Lancet. Microbe · 2025Pooled it
- Dynamics of sputum conversion during effective tuberculosis treatment: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PLoS medicine · 2021Pooled it
- Prevention of tuberculosis in household members: estimates of children eligible for treatment.Bulletin of the World Health Organization · 2019Pooled it
- Compound lidocaine/prilocaine cream combined with tetracaine prevents cough caused by extubation after general anaesthesia: a randomised controlled trial.BMC anesthesiology · 2023Trial
- Alternate aerosol and systemic immunisation with a recombinant viral vector for tuberculosis, MVA85A: A phase I randomised controlled trial.PLoS medicine · 2019Trial
- Importance of cough and M. tuberculosis strain type as risks for increased transmission within households.PloS one · 2014Trial
- Greater preexisting interferon γ responses to mycobacterial antigens and lower bacillary load during HIV-associated tuberculosis.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2013Trial
- Series 2: Invisible Threats: A Global Scoping Review of Risk Factors for Tuberculosis Infection.Tropical medicine and infectious disease · 2026Review
- Detection of AerosolizedOpen forum infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Dynamic of infectious aerosols generated by cough from patients with pulmonary tuberculosis.Journal of aerosol science · 2025Article
- Overview of the Epidemiology, Diagnosis, and Clinical Care Considerations for People Living with and at Risk for Tuberculosis in the United States.The Nursing clinics of North America · 2025Review
- A method for purifying and concentrating Mycobacterium tuberculosis in sputum specimens: The double-membrane filtration and concentration method (DMFCM).Journal of clinical tuberculosis and other mycobacterial diseases · 2025Article
- Community-Based Tuberculosis Isolation Decisions Require Individualization Based on Effectiveness and Duration of Treatment, Community Risks, and Patient Harms.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2025Article
- Differentially culturableJournal of medical microbiology · 2025Article
- The Role of Salivary Diagnostic Techniques in Screening for Active Pulmonary Tuberculosis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Microorganisms · 2025Review
- Candidate transmission survival genome ofProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Pulmonary Tuberculosis Infectiousness of Persons Identified Through Active and Passive Case-finding in a High-burden Setting.Open forum infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Assessing Infectiousness and the Impact of Effective Treatment to Guide Isolation Recommendations for People With Pulmonary Tuberculosis.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2025Review
- Respiratory Isolation for Tuberculosis: A Historical Perspective.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2025Article
35 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
14 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
rationaleAirborne transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis results from incompletely characterized host, bacterial, and environmental factors. Sputum smear microscopy is associated with considerable variability in transmission.
objectivesTo evaluate the use of cough-generated aerosols of M. tuberculosis to predict recent transmission.
methodsPatients with pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) underwent a standard evaluation and collection of cough aerosol cultures of M. tuberculosis. We assessed household contacts for new M. tuberculosis infection. We used multivariable logistic regression analysis with cluster adjustment to analyze predictors of new infection. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN
resultsFrom May 2009 to January 2011, we enrolled 96 sputum culture-positive index TB cases and their 442 contacts. Only 43 (45%) patients with TB yielded M. tuberculosis in aerosols. Contacts of patients with TB who produced high aerosols (≥10 CFU) were more likely to have a new infection compared with contacts from low-aerosol (1-9 CFU) and aerosol-negative cases (69%, 25%, and 30%, respectively; P = 0.009). A high-aerosol patient with TB was the only predictor of new M. tuberculosis infection in unadjusted (odds ratio, 5.18; 95% confidence interval, 1.52-17.61) and adjusted analyses (odds ratio, 4.81; 95% confidence interval, 1.20-19.23). Contacts of patients with TB with no aerosols versus low and high aerosols had differential tuberculin skin test and interferon-γ release assay responses.
conclusionsCough aerosols of M. tuberculosis are produced by a minority of patients with TB but predict transmission better than sputum smear microscopy or culture. Cough aerosols may help identify the most infectious patients with TB and thus improve the cost-effectiveness of TB control programs.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.