Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40408778›Full record

ArticleThe Journal of infectious diseases2025

Mind the Clinic-Community Gap: Re-evaluation of Test Performance and False Positive Results in Community-Wide Tuberculosis Screening.

Lara D Veeken, Alvaro Schwalb, Katherine C Horton, Raspati C Koesoemadinata, Bachti Alisjahbana, Reinout van Crevel, Rein M G J Houben

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in The Journal of infectious diseases, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
9citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
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

9 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Cost-effectiveness of community tuberculosis screening in South Africa.American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine · 2026
    Article
  2. 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 · 2026
    Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Lara D VeekenDepartment of Internal Medicine and Radboud Community for Infectious Diseases, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0003-2230-4884
Alvaro SchwalbTB Modelling Group, TB Centre, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0002-6518-9719
Katherine C HortonTB Modelling Group, TB Centre, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0002-7542-4065
Raspati C KoesoemadinataResearch Center for Care and Control of Infectious Disease, Universitas Padjadjaran, Bandung, Indonesia.ORCID 0000-0002-3817-4589
Bachti AlisjahbanaResearch Center for Care and Control of Infectious Disease, Universitas Padjadjaran, Bandung, Indonesia.ORCID 0000-0003-3745-8229
Reinout van CrevelDepartment of Internal Medicine and Radboud Community for Infectious Diseases, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0002-6233-6410
Rein M G J HoubenTB Modelling Group, TB Centre, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0003-4132-7467

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Community-wide screening for bacteriologically confirmed pulmonary tuberculosis may reduce the tuberculosis burden, although concerns of overtreatment remain because of false positive diagnoses due to subpar specificity of current bacteriological tests for screening. Our review and data analysis show that clinic-based test specificity estimates of Xpert against culture underestimate performance in communities, for both Xpert MTB/RIF(99.8% for community vs 98.4% for clinic) and Xpert Ultra (99.4% vs 95.6%, respectively), reducing the presumed false positivity of sputum Xpert, using culture as the reference, by 86.8% and 85.4%, respectively, compared with clinic-based specificity estimates. These findings support large-scale evaluation of community-wide screening for tuberculosis.

Indexed as

Mass ScreeningTuberculosis, PulmonaryFalse Positive ReactionsHumansMycobacterium tuberculosisSensitivity and SpecificitySputumcommunity screeningfalse positive diagnosisspecificitytuberculosisXpert MTB/RIF (Ultra)

Identifiers

PMID40408778
PMCPMC12349932

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

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.