ArticleTropical medicine and infectious disease2020
Can the High Sensitivity of Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra Be Harnessed to Save Cartridge Costs? Results from a Pooled Sputum Evaluation in Cambodia.
Article in Tropical medicine and infectious disease, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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
14 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Xpert MTB/RIF and Xpert Ultra assays for screening for pulmonary tuberculosis and rifampicin resistance in adults, irrespective of signs or symptoms.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Systematic Review of Pooling Sputum as an Efficient Method for Xpert MTB/RIF Tuberculosis Testing during the COVID-19 Pandemic.Emerging infectious diseases · 2021Pooled it
- Diagnostic Performance of the Pluslife MiniDock MTB and Molbio MTB Ultima Assays to Detect Tuberculosis From Tongue and Sputum Swabs Among Outpatients and in Active Case Finding in Cameroon.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2026Article
- Key operational challenges at a programmatic level to achieve optimal use of the GeneXpert platform.IJTLD open · 2026Article
- Programmatic approaches to screening for tuberculosis disease: a situational analysis of seven countries in the Western Pacific Region.Tropical medicine and health · 2025Article
- Implementation of large-scale pooled testing to increase rapid molecular diagnostic test coverage for tuberculosis: a retrospective evaluation.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Pooling sputum samples for Xpert® MTB/RIF and Xpert® Ultra testing for TB diagnosis.Public health action · 2023Article
- Pooling Sputum Samples for Efficient Mass Tuberculosis Screening in Prisons.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2022Article
- Pooled testing of sputum with Xpert MTB/RIF and Xpert Ultra during tuberculosis active case finding campaigns in Lao People's Democratic Republic.BMJ global health · 2022Article
- Pooling sputum for Xpert MTB/RIF and Xpert Ultra testing during the Covid-19 pandemic in Lao People's Democratic Republic.PLOS global public health · 2022Article
- Special Issue "Innovation and Evidence for Achieving TB Elimination in the Asia-Pacific Region".Tropical medicine and infectious disease · 2021Article
- Determining the value of TB active case-finding: current evidence and methodological considerations.The international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease : the official journal of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease · 2021Article
- An Evaluation of Programmatic Community-Based Chest X-ray Screening for Tuberculosis in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.Tropical medicine and infectious disease · 2020Article
- The TB REACH Initiative: Supporting TB Elimination Efforts in the Asia-Pacific.Tropical medicine and infectious disease · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Despite the World Health Organization recommending the use of rapid molecular tests for diagnosing tuberculosis (TB), uptake has been limited, partially due to high cartridge costs. Other infectious disease programs pool specimens to save on diagnostic test costs. We tested a sputum pooling strategy as part of a TB case finding program using Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra (Ultra). All persons were tested with Ultra individually, and their remaining specimens were also grouped with 3-4 samples for testing in a pooled sample. Individual and pooled testing results were compared to see if people with TB would have been missed when using pooling. We assessed the potential cost and time savings which different pooling strategies could achieve. We tested 584 individual samples and also grouped them in 153 pools for testing separately. Individual testing identified 91 (15.6%) people with positive Ultra results. One hundred percent of individual positive results were also found to be positive by the pooling strategy. Pooling would have saved 27% of cartridge and processing time. Our results are the first to use Ultra in a pooled approach for TB, and demonstrate feasibility in field conditions. Pooling did not miss any TB cases and can save time and money. The impact of pooling is only realized when yield is low.
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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.