ArticleThe Lancet. Infectious diseases2014
Assessment of the novel T-cell activation marker-tuberculosis assay for diagnosis of active tuberculosis in children: a prospective proof-of-concept study.
Article in The Lancet. Infectious diseases, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04923958 (Rapid Research in Diagnostics Development for TB Network), which is not on this map. Cited by 78 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Rapid Research in Diagnostics Development for TB Network (R2D2 TB Network) Study
Who cites it
78 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 138 citations in OpenAlex.
- Screening tests for active pulmonary tuberculosis in children.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Performance of metabonomic serum analysis for diagnostics in paediatric tuberculosis.Scientific reports · 2020Trial
- Monocyte-to-Lymphocyte Ratio Is Associated With Tuberculosis Disease and Declines With Anti-TB Treatment in HIV-Infected Children.Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999) · 2019Trial
- Two-HitFrontiers in immunology · 2019Trial
- Blood or Urine IP-10 Cannot Discriminate between Active Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases Different from Tuberculosis in Children.BioMed research international · 2015Trial
- An impaired T-cell-mediated mitogen response as a potential biomarker to aid in clinical diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis.Infection · 2026Article
- Optimisation and application of a T-cell antigen-specific activation assay as diagnostic and treatment-monitoring tool for tuberculosis.ERJ open research · 2026Article
- Host response biomarkers of tuberculosis recurrence and treatment failure.Communications medicine · 2026Article
- From gaps to progress: five-year global advances in the diagnosis of pediatric tuberculosis.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2026Review
- Comparative Performance of Flow Cytometry and ELISA for Detecting Ki-67 and HLA-DR in Whole Blood: Implications for Tuberculosis Diagnosis and Treatment Monitoring.Journal of pharmacy & bioallied sciences · 2025Article
- Characterization of QuantiFERON-TB-Plus Results in Patients with Tuberculosis Infection and Multiple Sclerosis.Neurology international · 2025Article
- A Comprehensive Review of the Diagnostics for Pediatric Tuberculosis Based on Assay Time, Ease of Operation, and Performance.Microorganisms · 2025Review
- Activation and proliferation profiles of M.tuberculosis specific dual functional CD4+T cells from smear negative pulmonary TB patients.PloS one · 2025Article
- Diagnostic accuracy of a sequence-specificMicrobiology spectrum · 2024Article
- Changes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis specific antigen-stimulated CD27European journal of medical research · 2024Article
- Differences in PPD- and mitogen-induced T-cell activation marker expression characterize immunopathology in acute tuberculosis patients.European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology · 2024Article
- Specific immune response toFrontiers in immunology · 2024Article
- BCG-Vaccinated Children with Contact to Tuberculosis Patients Show Delayed Conversion ofVaccines · 2023Article
- A framework for multi-scale intervention modeling: virtual cohorts, virtual clinical trials, and model-to-model comparisons.Frontiers in systems biology · 2023Article
18 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
19 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe diagnosis of paediatric tuberculosis is complicated by non-specific symptoms, difficult specimen collection, and the paucibacillary nature of the disease. We assessed the accuracy of a novel immunodiagnostic T-cell activation marker-tuberculosis (TAM-TB) assay in a proof-of-concept study to identify children with active tuberculosis.
methodsChildren with symptoms that suggested tuberculosis were prospectively recruited at the NIMR-Mbeya Medical Research Center in Mbeya, and the Ifakara Health Institute in Bagamoyo, Tanzania, between May 10, 2011, and Sept 4, 2012. Sputum and peripheral blood mononuclear cells were obtained for Mycobacterium tuberculosis culture and performance assessment of the TAM-TB assay. The children were assigned to standardised clinical case classifications based on microbiological and clinical findings.
findingsAmong 290 children screened, we selected a subgroup of 130 to ensure testing of at least 20 with culture-confirmed tuberculosis. 17 of 130 children were excluded because of inconclusive TAM-TB assay results. The TAM-TB assay enabled detection of 15 of 18 culture-confirmed cases (sensitivity 83·3%, 95% CI 58·6-96·4). Specificity was 96·8% (95% CI 89·0-99·6) in the cases that were classified as not tuberculosis (n=63), with little effect from latent tuberculosis infection. The TAM-TB assay identified five additional patients with highly probable or probable tuberculosis, in whom M tuberculosis was not isolated. The median time to diagnosis was 19·5 days (IQR 14-45) for culture.
interpretationThe sputum-independent TAM-TB assay is a rapid and accurate blood test that has the potential to improve the diagnosis of active tuberculosis in children.
fundingEuropean and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership, German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, and Swiss National Science Foundation.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.