ArticleAnnals of clinical microbiology and antimicrobials2026
Comparative evaluation of Anyplex™ MTB/NTM, Xpert MTB/RIF ultra, culture, and microscopy for the diagnosis of pediatric tuberculosis using gastric aspirates.
Article in Annals of clinical microbiology and antimicrobials, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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Abstract
backgroundPaediatric tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis remains a challenge due to the paucibacillary nature of the disease, resulting in 51.00% of TB cases remaining undiagnosed, rising to 58% in children under five years of age.
methodsThis study evaluates the effectiveness of different microbiological methods (Xpert
resultsThe highest sensitivity was observed with the Anyplex MTB/NTM assay (38.94%). Interestingly, Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra exhibited lower sensitivity than culture (16.67% versus 21.27%). Considering all methods together, the positivity was not significantly associated with age. The overall positivity rate of all diagnostic methods combined was higher in children under five years (46.7%) and adolescents aged 16-18 years (54.2%) compared with those aged 6-15 years (31.2%). Similarly, the sensitivity of individual diagnostic methods (except Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra) followed the same trend.
conclusionThese data indicate that gastric aspirate microbiology provides only moderate confirmation of paediatric TB in routine practice, and that nucleic acid amplification-based technologies (NAAT) should be used as part of a complementary diagnostic strategy alongside culture and smear microscopy, with culture remaining essential for drug susceptibility testing. Because NAAT platforms were applied in different centre-specific cohorts, the findings should be interpreted as real-world yields rather than a head-to-head comparison, and future work should prioritise standardised sampling and evaluation of non-invasive alternatives (e.g., stool) across age groups.
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