SynthesisThe international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease : the official journal of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease2017
Time to treatment for rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis: systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in The international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease : the official journal of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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
23 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- Factors influencing diagnosis and treatment initiation for multidrug-resistant/rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis in six sub-Saharan African countries: a mixed-methods systematic review.BMJ global health · 2020Pooled it
- Attrition and delays before treatment initiation among patients with MDR-TB in China (2006-13): Magnitude and risk factors.PloS one · 2019Trial
- Targeted next-generation sequencing implementation in Eswatini identifies rifampicin and bedaquiline resistance undetected by routine diagnostic testing.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Nationwide coverage of molecular drug susceptibility testing in patients with pulmonary multidrug/rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis in South Korea: a retrospective cohort study (2015-2021).BMJ open respiratory research · 2025Article
- Patient pathway analysis of rifampicin-resistant TB diagnostic and treatment delays.IJTLD open · 2025Article
- Article
- The Impact of Preventive Treatment for Multidrug- and Rifampin-Resistant Tuberculosis Exceeds Trial-Based Estimates.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2024Article
- Global burden of disease due to rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis: a mathematical modeling analysis.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Review
- Prevalence, associated factors and rifampicin resistance pattern of pulmonary tuberculosis among HIV-positive patients attending antiretroviral treatment clinic at East Gojjam Zone, Ethiopia: An institution-based cross-sectional study.Journal of clinical tuberculosis and other mycobacterial diseases · 2022Article
- Rifampicin resistance and mortality in patients hospitalised with HIV-associated tuberculosis.Southern African journal of HIV medicine · 2022Article
- Impacts of a comprehensive tuberculosis control model on the quality of clinical services and the financial burden of treatment for patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis in China: a mixed-methods evaluation.Infectious diseases of poverty · 2021Article
- Article
- A novel, rapid (within hours) culture-free diagnostic method for detecting live Mycobacterium tuberculosis with high sensitivity.EBioMedicine · 2020Article
- All nonadherence is equal but is some more equal than others? Tuberculosis in the digital era.ERJ open research · 2020Review
- Advances in Molecular Diagnosis of Tuberculosis.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2020Review
- Impact of Molecular Drug Susceptibility Testing on the Time to Multidrug-resistant Tuberculosis Treatment Initiation.Journal of Korean medical science · 2020Article
- Overcoming the health system barriers to early diagnosis and management of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in a rural setting in North India.BMJ case reports · 2020Article
- A Glutamine Insertion at Codon 432 of RpoB Confers Rifampicin Resistance inFrontiers in microbiology · 2020Article
- Impact of GxAlert on the management of rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis patients, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.Public health action · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundTo reduce transmission and improve patient outcomes, rapid diagnosis and treatment of rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis (RR-TB) is required.
objectiveTo conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis assessing time to treatment for RR-TB and variability using diagnostic testing methods and treatment delivery approach.
designStudies from 2000 to 2015 reporting time to second-line treatment initiation were selected from PubMed and published conference abstracts.
resultsFrom 53 studies, 83 cohorts (13 034 patients) were included. Overall weighted mean time to treatment from specimen collection was 81 days (95%CI 70-91), and was shorter with ambulatory (57 days, 95%CI 40-74) than hospital-based treatment (86 days, 95%CI 71-102). Time to treatment was shorter with genotypic susceptibility testing (38 days, 95%CI 27-49) than phenotypic testing (108 days, 95%CI 98-117). The mean percentage of diagnosed patients initiating treatment was 76% (95%CI 70-83, range 25-100).
conclusionTime to second-line anti-tuberculosis treatment initiation is extremely variable across studies, and often unnecessarily long. Reduced delays are associated with genotypic testing and ambulatory treatment settings. Routine monitoring of the proportion of diagnosed patients initiating treatment and time to treatment are necessary to identify areas for intervention.
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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.