ArticleAnnals of clinical microbiology and antimicrobials2025
Improving tuberculosis diagnosis: evaluation of tongue swabbing as a complementary method to sputum analysis in Guinea.
Article in Annals of clinical microbiology and antimicrobials, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) diagnosis primarily relies on sputum examination, which can be challenging for patients unable to produce sputum. Minimally invasive oral sampling methods, such as tongue swabs (TS), have been proposed as alternatives. We assessed the effectiveness of TS for PTB diagnosis using molecular tests.
methodsIn a prospective study at two TB clinics, 99 confirmed smear-positive PTB patients provided 11 TS and one additional sputum sample (SS) for GeneXpert-Ultra (Ultra) testing at the National Reference Laboratory for Mycobacteriology. Testing was performed on a single TS (1TS), three pooled TS (3TS), and the additional SS. Additionally, we retrospectively analyzed TS from 120 participants with TB symptoms using an in-house IS6110-qPCR at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, alongside two SSs tested by fluorescence microscopy, GeneXpert-MTB/RIF (Xpert) and Ultra in Guinea.
resultsIn the prospective study, among 99 smear-positive patients, Ultra detected Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) in 86.9% (1TS) and 91.9% (3TS), compared to 96.9% in SS. The highest positivity grade for sputum was "MTB detected high" (n = 31) with no "Trace" results, while for any TS the maximum grading was "Medium". TS positivity grades were mostly "MTB Low", and was not impacted by the sample swab number tested. In the retrospective study, positivity rates for sputum were 35% on microscopy, 44% on Xpert, 38.6% on Ultra, and 38.3% on in-house swab-IS6110-qPCR, with strong agreement between sputum-Xpert/Ultra and swab-IS6110-qPCR (k = 0.91 Xpert, k = 0.86 Ultra).
resultsTS demonstrated its ability to detect MTB on molecular tests, providing a minimally invasive complement for PTB diagnosis. Further studies in sputum scarce patients are needed.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.