TABLE 4.

Diagnostic accuracy of line probe assays for all three assays for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) detection

Reference standard	Test	Direct or indirect	Smear status	Datasets (samples) n	Sensitivity (95% CI)	Specificity (95% CI)
Culture reference	MTB	Direct	All	6 (3451)	85.0% (70.0–93.3)	98.0% (96.2–99.0)
	MTB	Direct	Positive	5 (802)¶	94.4% (89.4–99.4)	#
	MTB	Direct	Negative	5 (961)	44.4% (29.2–71.7)	98.9% (95.4–99.7)
Culture reference	MTB	Direct: fresh	Both	4	83.0% (61.9–93.6)	98.8% (97.2–99.5)
Culture reference	MTB	Direct: frozen	Both	2+	#	#

+: meta-analysis was not possible based on the number of datasets identified for this subset. ^#: not estimable. ^¶: two of these five studies only reported on sensitivity so bivariate meta-analysis for specificity was not possible. Of the three studies that contributed data on smear positive specificity, estimates were 50% (n.b. only had 2 specimens that were MTB negative), 100% and 100%.