Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34215836›Full record

ArticleNPJ digital medicine2021

Computer-aided interpretation of chest radiography reveals the spectrum of tuberculosis in rural South Africa.

Jana Fehr, Stefan Konigorski, Stephen Olivier, Resign Gunda, Ashmika Surujdeen, Dickman Gareta, Theresa Smit, Kathy Baisley, Sashen Moodley, Yumna Moosa and 9 more

Erratum issuedOpen access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in NPJ digital medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 48 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
48citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
2.8field-weighted citation impact, top 8% 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

48 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 58 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
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  4. Cost-effectiveness of community tuberculosis screening in South Africa.American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine · 2026
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  17. Evidence ofFrontiers in veterinary science · 2025
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

19 authors at 6 institutions in 4 countries.

Jana FehrAfrica Health Research Institute, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6183-2044
Stefan KonigorskiDigital Health & Machine Learning, Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Engineering, Berlin, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9966-6819
Stephen OlivierAfrica Health Research Institute, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3855-5821
Resign GundaAfrica Health Research Institute, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Ashmika SurujdeenAfrica Health Research Institute, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Dickman GaretaAfrica Health Research Institute, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4004-5655
Theresa SmitAfrica Health Research Institute, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Kathy BaisleyAfrica Health Research Institute, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Sashen MoodleyAfrica Health Research Institute, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Yumna MoosaAfrica Health Research Institute, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Willem HanekomAfrica Health Research Institute, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Olivier KooleAfrica Health Research Institute, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1122-5382
Thumbi Ndung'uAfrica Health Research Institute, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Deenan PillayAfrica Health Research Institute, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Alison D GrantAfrica Health Research Institute, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2437-5195
Mark J SiednerAfrica Health Research Institute, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Christoph LippertDigital Health & Machine Learning, Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Engineering, Berlin, Germany.
Emily B WongAfrica Health Research Institute, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. emily.wong@ahri.org.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4755-5380
Vukuzazi Team
Africa Health Research Institute · ZAAurum Institute · ZALondon School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine · GBHasso Plattner Institute · DEHarvard University · USRagon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard · US

Funding

IMMUNE MECHANISMS OF PROTECTION AGAINST MYCOBACTERIUM TUBERCULOSIS CENTER (IMPAC-TB) - SARS-CoV-2 RELATED RESEARCH75N93019C00070 · NIAID · SEATTLE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL · PI URDAHL, KEVIN · 2019 to 2025
$86.6M
Studies of Mucosal Associated Invariant T (MAIT) cells in people with HIV, TB and HIV/TB co-infection in South AfricaK08AI118538 · NIAID · MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL · PI WONG, EMILY BETH · 2015 to 2019
$950k
Quantification of patterns of multimorbidity to develop effective and efficient models of HIV, TB and NCD co-care in rural South AfricaR21TW011687 · FIC · KWAZULU-NATAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE TB-HIV · PI TANSER, FRANK COURTENEY, WONG, EMILY BETH · 2020 to 2021
$347k
FIC NIH HHS R21 TW011687Medical Research Council MR/R010161/1NIAID NIH HHS 75N93019C00070NIAID NIH HHS K08 AI118538Wellcome Trust
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Computer-aided digital chest radiograph interpretation (CAD) can facilitate high-throughput screening for tuberculosis (TB), but its use in population-based active case-finding programs has been limited. In an HIV-endemic area in rural South Africa, we used a CAD algorithm (CAD4TBv5) to interpret digital chest x-rays (CXR) as part of a mobile health screening effort. Participants with TB symptoms or CAD4TBv5 score above the triaging threshold were referred for microbiological sputum assessment. During an initial pilot phase, a low CAD4TBv5 triaging threshold of 25 was selected to maximize TB case finding. We report the performance of CAD4TBv5 in screening 9,914 participants, 99 (1.0%) of whom were found to have microbiologically proven TB. CAD4TBv5 was able to identify TB cases at the same sensitivity but lower specificity as a blinded radiologist, whereas the next generation of the algorithm (CAD4TBv6) achieved comparable sensitivity and specificity to the radiologist. The CXRs of people with microbiologically confirmed TB spanned a range of lung field abnormality, including 19 (19.2%) cases deemed normal by the radiologist. HIV serostatus did not impact CAD4TB's performance. Notably, 78.8% of the TB cases identified during this population-based survey were asymptomatic and therefore triaged for sputum collection on the basis of CAD4TBv5 score alone. While CAD4TBv6 has the potential to replace radiologists for triaging CXRs in TB prevalence surveys, population-specific piloting is necessary to set the appropriate triaging thresholds. Further work on image analysis strategies is needed to identify radiologically subtle active TB.

Identifiers

PMID34215836
PMCPMC8253848
OpenAlexW3173691875

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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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.