SynthesisBMC infectious diseases2022
Impact of molecular diagnostic tests on diagnostic and treatment delays in tuberculosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in BMC infectious diseases, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 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
28 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- Impact of rapid nucleic acid amplification tests for tuberculosis on patient outcomes.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2025Pooled it
- Targeted next-generation sequencing to diagnose drug-resistant tuberculosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.The Lancet. Infectious diseases · 2024Pooled it
- Post-Tuberculosis Lung Disease: Clinicopathologic Insights, Diagnosis, Prevention, and Management.MedComm · 2026Review
- Performance of a targeted next generation sequencing assay for mycobacterial identification and drug resistance from sputum and isolates.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2026Article
- Guidelines for the prevention and management of mother-to-child transmission of tuberculosis.Quantitative imaging in medicine and surgery · 2026Review
- Community-based interventions to improve tuberculosis treatment outcomes: A meta-analysis.MethodsX · 2026Review
- Computer-aided detection thresholds can guide repeat rapid molecular testing in TB screening.IJTLD open · 2026Article
- Diagnostic Yield of Tongue Swab- Compared to Sputum-Based Molecular Testing for Tuberculosis in Four High-Burden Countries.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2026Article
- Diagnostic and treatment delays and associated factors among RR-TB patients under molecular drug susceptibility testing: a retrospective study in Guizhou Province, China.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Six-year retrospective comparison of GeneXpert MTB/RIF Ultra PCR and culture for pediatric tuberculosis diagnosis in non-sputum samples.Microbiology spectrum · 2026Article
- Tuberculosis Diagnostic Delays in Indonesian Primary Care Pathways.Annals of global health · 2026Observational
- Rapid Molecular Diagnostics of Tuberculosis: What Do We Have, What Do We Need?Pulmonary medicine · 2026Review
- Epidemiology of drug-resistant tuberculosis in Hunan China over a 10-year period.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Evaluation of the Novel RITA MTBC Assay for Tuberculosis Detection: A Pilot Comparison with GeneXpert and BD MAX™.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Diagnostic accuracy of swab-based molecular tests for tuberculosis using near-point-of-care platforms: a multi-country evaluation.EBioMedicine · 2025Article
- AI-Enabled Microfluidics for Respiratory Pathogen Detection.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- The contribution of TB rapid diagnostic testing in reducing TB-related mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa- in both Person-Living with HIV and HIV-Negative populations: A 9-year quantitative retrospective analysis.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Health system delay and risk factors in pulmonary tuberculosis diagnosis before and during the COVID-19 epidemic: a multi-center survey in China.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- TB treatment delays and associated risk factors in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, 2019-2021.BMC infectious diseases · 2024Article
- Integration and validation of host transcript signatures, including a novel 3-transcript tuberculosis signature, to enable one-step multiclass diagnosis of childhood febrile disease.Journal of translational medicine · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 6 institutions in 6 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundCountries with high TB burden have expanded access to molecular diagnostic tests. However, their impact on reducing delays in TB diagnosis and treatment has not been assessed. Our primary aim was to summarize the quantitative evidence on the impact of nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT) on diagnostic and treatment delays compared to that of the standard of care for drug-sensitive and drug-resistant tuberculosis (DS-TB and DR-TB).
methodsWe searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, and the Global Health databases (from their inception to October 12, 2020) and extracted time delay data for each test. We then analysed the diagnostic and treatment initiation delay separately for DS-TB and DR-TB by comparing smear vs Xpert for DS-TB and culture drug sensitivity testing (DST) vs line probe assay (LPA) for DR-TB. We conducted random effects meta-analyses of differences of the medians to quantify the difference in diagnostic and treatment initiation delay, and we investigated heterogeneity in effect estimates based on the period the test was used in, empiric treatment rate, HIV prevalence, healthcare level, and study design. We also evaluated methodological differences in assessing time delays.
resultsA total of 45 studies were included in this review (DS = 26; DR = 20). We found considerable heterogeneity in the definition and reporting of time delays across the studies. For DS-TB, the use of Xpert reduced diagnostic delay by 1.79 days (95% CI - 0.27 to 3.85) and treatment initiation delay by 2.55 days (95% CI 0.54-4.56) in comparison to sputum microscopy. For DR-TB, use of LPAs reduced diagnostic delay by 40.09 days (95% CI 26.82-53.37) and treatment initiation delay by 45.32 days (95% CI 30.27-60.37) in comparison to any culture DST methods.
conclusionsOur findings indicate that the use of World Health Organization recommended diagnostics for TB reduced delays in diagnosing and initiating TB treatment. Future studies evaluating performance and impact of diagnostics should consider reporting time delay estimates based on the standardized reporting framework.
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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.