Theron 2014a
| Study characteristics | |||
| Patient sampling | Randomized, parallel‐group, multicentre trial, prospective data collection | ||
| Patient characteristics and setting | Presenting signs and symptoms: 1 or more symptoms of pulmonary TB according to predefined WHO criteria Age: 18 years or older, median 37 years (IQR 30 to 46) Sex, female: 43% HIV infection: 69% History of TB: not reported Sample size: 729 Clinical setting: outpatient Laboratory level: peripheral Country: South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Tanzania World Bank Income Classification: low and middle income High TB burden country: yes (South Africa), yes (Zimbabwe), yes (Zambia), yes (Tanzania) High MDR‐TB burden country: yes (South Africa), yes (Zimbabwe), no (Zambia), no (Tanzania) High TB/HIV burden country: yes (South Africa), yes (Zimbabwe), yes (Zambia), yes (Tanzania) Prevalence of TB cases in the study: 25.4% |
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| Index tests | Index: Xpert MTB/RIF | ||
| Target condition and reference standard(s) | Target condition: pulmonary TB Reference standard for pulmonary TB: MGIT 960 |
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| Flow and timing | |||
| Comparative | |||
| Notes | |||
| Methodological quality | |||
| Item | Authors' judgement | Risk of bias | Applicability concerns |
| DOMAIN 1: Patient Selection | |||
| Was a consecutive or random sample of patients enrolled? | Yes | ||
| Was a case‐control design avoided? | Yes | ||
| Did the study avoid inappropriate exclusions? | Yes | ||
| Low | Low | ||
| DOMAIN 2: Index Test Xpert MTB/RIF | |||
| Were the index test results interpreted without knowledge of the results of the reference standard? | Yes | ||
| If a threshold was used, was it pre‐specified? | Yes | ||
| Low | Low | ||
| DOMAIN 3: Reference Standard | |||
| Is the reference standards likely to correctly classify the target condition? | Yes | ||
| Were the reference standard results for TB detection interpreted without knowledge of the results of the index test? | Yes | ||
| Were the reference standard results for rifampicin resistance detection interpreted without knowledge of the results of the index test? | |||
| Low | Low | ||
| DOMAIN 4: Flow and Timing | |||
| Was there an appropriate interval between index test and reference standard? | Yes | ||
| Did all patients receive the same reference standard? | Yes | ||
| Were all patients included in the analysis? | Yes | ||
| Low | |||