Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38528958›Full record

SynthesisFrontiers in medicine2023

Diagnostic accuracy of oral swab for detection of pulmonary tuberculosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Fuzhen Zhang, Yilin Wang, Xuxia Zhang, Kewei Liu, Yuanyuan Shang, Wei Wang, Yuanyuan Liu, Liang Li, Yu Pang

Open access · goldAbstract readSystematic Review
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Frontiers in medicine, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
13citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
6.6field-weighted citation impact, top 3% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 17 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
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  3. Trial
  4. Diagnostic Accuracy and Usability of the PluslifeDiagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026
    Article
  5. Diagnostic Yield of Tongue Swab- Compared to Sputum-Based Molecular Testing for Tuberculosis in Four High-Burden Countries.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2026
    Article
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  9. Review
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.

Fuzhen Zhang *Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, China.
Yilin Wang *Department of Bacteriology and Immunology, Beijing Chest Hospital, Capital Medical University/Beijing Tuberculosis and Thoracic Tumor Research Institute, Beijing, China.
Xuxia Zhang *Department of Bacteriology and Immunology, Beijing Chest Hospital, Capital Medical University/Beijing Tuberculosis and Thoracic Tumor Research Institute, Beijing, China.
Kewei LiuDepartment of Bacteriology and Immunology, Beijing Chest Hospital, Capital Medical University/Beijing Tuberculosis and Thoracic Tumor Research Institute, Beijing, China.
Yuanyuan ShangDepartment of Bacteriology and Immunology, Beijing Chest Hospital, Capital Medical University/Beijing Tuberculosis and Thoracic Tumor Research Institute, Beijing, China.
Wei WangDepartment of Bacteriology and Immunology, Beijing Chest Hospital, Capital Medical University/Beijing Tuberculosis and Thoracic Tumor Research Institute, Beijing, China.
Yuanyuan LiuDepartment of Bacteriology and Immunology, Beijing Chest Hospital, Capital Medical University/Beijing Tuberculosis and Thoracic Tumor Research Institute, Beijing, China.
Liang LiDepartment of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, China.
Yu PangDepartment of Bacteriology and Immunology, Beijing Chest Hospital, Capital Medical University/Beijing Tuberculosis and Thoracic Tumor Research Institute, Beijing, China.
Capital Medical University · CNBeijing Chest Hospital · CNShandong University · CN

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Objectives: Tuberculosis (TB) remains a significant concern in terms of public health, necessitating the timely and accurate diagnosis to impede its advancement. The utilization of oral swab analysis (OSA) presents a promising approach for diagnosing pulmonary TB by identifying Methods: We conducted a comprehensive investigation across multiple databases, namely PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, Web of Science, ClinicalTrials.gov, Chinese BioMedical Literature Database (CBM), China National Knowledge Infrastructure Database (CNKI), and Wanfang China Science and Technology Journal Database to identify relevant studies. Out search query utilized the following keywords: oral swab, buccal swab, tongue swab, tuberculosis, and TB. Subsequently, we employed STATA 16.0 to compute the combined sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, and diagnostic odds ratio for both the overall and subgroup analyses. Results: Our findings indicated that OSA has a combined sensitivity of 0.67 and specificity of 0.95 in individuals with pulmonary TB. Subgroup analysis further revealed that among adult individuals with pulmonary TB, the sensitivity and specificity of OSA were 0.73 and 0.93, respectively. In HIV-negative individuals with pulmonary TB, the sensitivity and specificity were 0.68 and 0.98, respectively. The performance of OSA in detecting pulmonary TB correlated with the bacteria load in sputum. Additionally, the sensitivity for diagnosing pulmonary TB using tongue specimens was higher (0.75, 95% CI: 0.65-0.83) compared to cheek specimens (0.52, 95% CI: 0.34-0.70), while both types of specimens demonstrated high specificity. Conclusions: To conclude, oral swabs serve as a promising alternative for diagnosing pulmonary TB, especially in adult patients. In addition, tongue swabs yield better sensitivity than cheek swabs to identify pulmonary TB patients. Systematic review registration: identifier: CRD42023421357.

Indexed as

diagnostic accuracymeta-analysisoral swab analysissystematic reviewtuberculosis

Identifiers

PMID38528958
PMCPMC10961363
OpenAlexW4392653109

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.