Screening tests for active pulmonary tuberculosis in children

Objectives

This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (diagnostic). The objectives are as follows:

To determine the sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive value of 1) the presence of one or more tuberculosis symptoms, or symptom combinations; 2) chest radiography; 3) Xpert MTB/RIF; 4) Xpert Ultra; and 5) combinations of the aforementioned tests as screening tests for detecting active pulmonary tuberculosis in children in the following groups.

Household contacts of a person with active tuberculosis;

School contacts of a person with active tuberculosis;

Other close contacts of a person with active tuberculosis;

Children living with HIV;

Children with pneumonia;

Other risk groups (e.g. children with a history of previous tuberculosis, malnourished children);

Children in the general population in high burden settings

Secondary objectives

To compare the accuracy of the different index tests, including different applications of tests (e.g. CXR with any abnormality versus, more specifically, CXR with abnormality suggestive of tuberculosis); we are interested in the accuracy of the index tests in any setting (i.e. community, outpatient, and inpatient).

To investigate potential sources of heterogeneity in accuracy estimates in relation to age group, HIV status, whether the study was conducted in a high tuberculosis burden country, and whether the child received a single screening or more than one screening.