Evidence map›Paper›PMID 28721354›Full record

ArticleOpen forum infectious diseases2017

Diagnostic Outcomes After Chest Radiograph Interpretation in Patients With Suspected Tuberculosis and Negative Sputum Smears in a High-Burden Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Tuberculosis Setting.

Patrick G T Cudahy, Rodney Dawson, Brian W Allwood, Gary Maartens, Douglas Wilson

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Open forum infectious diseases, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact, top 89% of its field
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed, 4 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.

Patrick G T CudahySection of Infectious Disease, Department of Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut; and.
Rodney DawsonDepartment of Medicine, University of Cape Town Lung Institute and Division of Pulmonology, Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town.
Brian W AllwoodDepartment of Medicine, University of Cape Town Lung Institute and Division of Pulmonology, Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town.
Gary MaartensDepartment of Medicine, Division of Clinical Pharmacology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, and.
Douglas WilsonDepartment of Internal Medicine, Edendale Hospital, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.
Groote Schuur Hospital · ZALung Institute · USUniversity of Cape Town · ZAUniversity of KwaZulu-Natal · ZAYale University · US

Funding

Research Mentoring and Building Capacity of underrepresented Minority Research Scientists in India.D43TW010540 · FIC · YALE UNIVERSITY · PI MICHELE BARRY, Eva Harris · 2017 to 2026
$15.5M
TRAINING IN THE PATHOGENESIS OF INFECTIOUS DISEASEST32AI007517 · NIAID · YALE UNIVERSITY · PI Jaimie Meyer, Albert C Shaw · 1997 to 2026
$6.1M
Global Health Fellows and Scholars Research TrainingR25TW009338 · FIC · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY · PI BARRY, MICHELE, KO, ALBERT ICKSANG · 2012 to 2016
$5.2M
FIC NIH HHS D43 TW010540FIC NIH HHS R25 TW009338NIAID NIH HHS T32 AI007517
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundEvaluation of patients with suspected tuberculosis and negative sputum smears for acid-fast bacilli (AFB) is challenging, especially in high human immunodeficiency virus coinfection settings where sputum smears have lower sensitivity for detecting AFB.

methodsWe examined the utility of chest radiographs for detecting smear-negative pulmonary tuberculosis. Three hundred sixty sputum smear-negative patients who were referred from primary care clinics in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa were evaluated. Chest radiographs were read by experienced pulmonologists using a previously validated Chest X-Ray Reading and Recording System (CRRS).

resultsAgreement between observers using CRRS was high at 91% with a Cohen's kappa of 0.64 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.52-0.76). Against a reference standard of sputum culture, sensitivity was 93% (95% CI = 86%-97%), whereas specificity was 14% (95% CI = 10%-19%). Performance against clinical diagnosis (following World Health Organization guidelines) was similar with sensitivity of 92% (95% CI = 88%-95%) and specificity of 20% (95% CI = 13%-28%).

conclusionThe low specificity of CRRS in this setting indicates poor diagnostic utility for detecting pulmonary tuberculosis.

Indexed as

chest radiographsmear-negativeSouth Africa.tuberculosis

Identifiers

PMID28721354
PMCPMC5508775
OpenAlexW2626314115

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
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Registered trials

None linked

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.