ArticleJournal of clinical microbiology2022
Accuracy of Tongue Swab Testing Using Xpert MTB-RIF Ultra for Tuberculosis Diagnosis.
Article in Journal of clinical microbiology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT05989802 (Rapid Research in Diagnostics Development for Tuberculosis Network), which is not on this map. Cited by 63 papers, 5 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 Tuberculosis Network (R2D2 Kids) and Assessing Diagnostics At Point-of-care for Tuberculosis in Children (ADAPT for Kids)
Who cites it
63 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 79 citations in OpenAlex.
- Diagnostic accuracy of Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra for detecting pulmonary tuberculosis and rifampicin resistance: a systematic review and meta-analysis.European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology · 2025Pooled it
- Oral swabs with a rapid molecular diagnostic test for pulmonary tuberculosis in adults and children: a systematic review.The Lancet. Global health · 2024Pooled it
- Revolutionizing diagnosis of pulmonaryFrontiers in microbiology · 2024Pooled it
- Accuracy of upper respiratory tract samples to diagnose Mycobacterium tuberculosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.The Lancet. Microbe · 2023Pooled it
- Diagnostic accuracy of oral swab for detection of pulmonary tuberculosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2023Pooled it
- Pulmonary Tuberculosis Detection with MiniDock MTB Using Swab Samples.The New England journal of medicine · 2026Trial
- Community-based "X-ray+Xpert® MTB/RIF ultra pooling test" case-finding strategy among high-risk groups in rural areas: a prospective application study.Emerging microbes & infections · 2026Article
- Integrative profiling of oral fungal communities acrossAnnals of medicine · 2026Article
- Article
- Centralized molecular testing of community-collected tongue swabs for tuberculosis screening among household contacts: a cross-sectional diagnostic performance, yield, and implementation study.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Diagnostic Accuracy of Molecular Testing on Saliva and Oral Swabs for Pulmonary Tuberculosis.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2026Article
- "That is why I trust": a qualitative study on acceptability and feasibility of novel tongue swab diagnostics to assess people presenting with tuberculosis symptoms in Viet Nam and Zambia.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Tongue swab-based Targeted Universal Tuberculosis Testing in people living with HIV in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Multidimensional cfRNA response modeling identifies a 5-gene pair signature for high-robust pulmonary tuberculosis diagnosis.iScience · 2026Article
- In-home molecular testing of tongue swabs and sputum to inform household-level screening with diagnostic escalation strategies for tuberculosis contact investigation: a prospective cohort study in South Africa.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Tongue swabmedRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Diagnostic accuracy of the BD MAX MDR-TB assay on sputum and tongue swabs forMicrobiology spectrum · 2026Article
- Rapid Molecular Diagnostics of Tuberculosis: What Do We Have, What Do We Need?Pulmonary medicine · 2026Review
- Salivary exosomalFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Article
- Evaluation of the performance of promising host transcriptional biosignatures in predicting TB progression during a 1-year prospective cohort study in Indian household contacts.Frontiers in tuberculosis · 2026Article
3 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
19 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Tongue dorsum swabs have shown promise as alternatives to sputum for detecting Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). Some of the most encouraging results have come from studies that used manual quantitative PCR (qPCR) to analyze swabs. Studies using the automated Cepheid Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra qPCR test (Xpert Ultra) have exhibited less sensitivity with tongue swabs, possibly because Xpert Ultra is optimized for testing sputum, not tongue swab samples. Using two new sample preprocessing methods that demonstrated good sensitivity in preliminary experiments, we assessed diagnostic accuracy and semi-quantitative signals of Xpert Ultra performed on tongue swabs collected from 183 adults with presumed TB in Kampala, Uganda. Relative to a sputum Xpert Ultra reference standard, the sensitivity of tongue swab Xpert Ultra was 77.8% (95% confidence interval [CI] 64.4-88.0) and specificity was 100.0% (95% CI, 97.2-100.0). When compared to a microbiological reference standard (MRS) incorporating both sputum Xpert Ultra and sputum mycobacterial culture, sensitivity was 72.4% (95% CI, 59.1-83.3) and specificity remained the same. Semi-quantitative Xpert Ultra results were generally lower with tongue swabs than with sputum, and cycle threshold values were higher. None of the eight sputum Xpert Ultra "trace" or "very low" results were detected using tongue swabs. Tongue swabs should be considered when sputum cannot be collected for Xpert Ultra testing, or in certain mass-screening settings. Further optimization of tongue swab analysis is needed to achieve parity with sputum-based molecular testing for TB.
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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.