SynthesisThe European respiratory journal2025
How to diagnose TB in migrants? A systematic review of reviews and decision tree analytical modelling exercise to evaluate properties for single and combined tuberculosis screening tests.
Synthesis in The European respiratory journal, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Tuberculosis disease and infection screening among migrants in the Netherlands 2019-2023: a national retrospective observational study.The Lancet regional health. Europe · 2026Article
- Imprecision in tuberculosis infection outcomes: implications for non-inferiority vaccine trials.International journal of epidemiology · 2026Article
- Research overview-2025: integrating scientific progress to accelerate global tuberculosis elimination.Frontiers in tuberculosis · 2026Article
- Hierarchical integration of mNGS, PCR, and other conventional methods for precision TB diagnostics.Microbiology spectrum · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundOptimising tuberculosis disease testing algorithms is fundamental to ensuring the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of migrant screening programmes, including better understanding of individual and combined screening test properties. The aim of our study was to estimate pooled tuberculosis test properties from the literature and combine them in decision analytical modelling with a focus on whether tests used for the diagnosis of tuberculosis infection might add value to these algorithms.
methodsWe performed a systematic review of reviews of diagnostic tests for active tuberculosis, searching PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and Cochrane library, and pooled test properties extracted from original papers included in reviews. We used these pooled results in a decision tree analysis to estimate test properties for common migrant screening algorithms.
resultsWe retrieved 1477 records and included 32 reviews, including data from 437 original studies for 18 tuberculosis tests, providing pooled results for 13. Our modelling showed that algorithms with interferon-γ release assays had the highest diagnostic odds ratios (dORs) (
conclusionsThe significant test accuracy benefit of adding interferon-γ release assays to an active tuberculosis screening pathway will help inform clinicians and policy-makers on the most effective screening algorithms.
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