Table 1. Individual study characteristics for studies in adults.

Article	Study design	Participant Selection	Country	Setting	Specimen type for reference standard	Reference standard	Sonographer	HIV status (HIV +ve/ total) (patient subgroup)	Previous history of TB	Age range in years (patient subgroup)	Median age in years (IQR), unless stated	Gender (male/ female) (% male)
Agostinis 2017 [34]	Prospective cross-sectional	–	Guinea-Bissau	Regional hospital	Sputum	Clinical symptoms, AFB and CXR	–	30/60 (50%)	–	–	32.5 (18.1)	27/33 (45%)
Babasa 2019 [35]	Prospective cross-sectional	Consecutive	Philippines	Tertiary hospital	Sputum	NAAT, AFB and CXR	Emergency physician trained in lung ultrasound	–	–	–	–	–
Fentress 2020 [33]	Prospective cross-sectional	Consecutive	Peru	Regional hospital	Sputum	AFB (50/51); or PCR/culture (1/51)	General practitioners following 30 hours’ training	0/51 (0%)	–	18–78	Mean 33.7, SD 15.81	35/16 (69%)
Montuori 2019 [9]	Prospective cross-sectional	–	Italy	Tertiary hospital	–	AFB, PCR and solid and liquid culture (95/102); or clinical symptoms and CXR (7/102)	Internal medicine physician experienced in clinical ultrasonography	11/51 (22%) (PTB)	7/51 (14%)	24–49 (PTB)	34	37/14 (73%)
								17/51 (33%) (non-PTB)	14/51 (27%)	39–60 (non-PTB)	49	30/21 (59%)
Wagih 2020 [36]	Prospective cross-sectional	–	Egypt	Tertiary hospital	–	AFB; or PCR (unclear proportion)	–	25/50 (50%)	–	21–51 (HIV +ve)	Mean 34.6, SD 8.6	23/2 (92%)
									–	17–61 (HIV (-ve)	Mean 33.9, SD 13.6	25/0 (100%)

AFB = sputum smear microscopy for acid fast bacilli; CXR = chest x-ray; HIV = human immunodeficiency virus; NAAT = nucleic acid amplification test; PCR = polymerase chain reaction; PTB = diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis by reference standard; non PTB = not diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis by reference standard;– = data unavailable.