ArticleMicrobiology spectrum2025
Testing tongue swab samples by Cepheid Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra: comparison of two protocols applied to samples from persons with low-bacillary load TB.
Article in Microbiology spectrum, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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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.
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.
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Centralized molecular testing of community-collected tongue swabs for tuberculosis screening among household contacts: a cross-sectional diagnostic performance, yield, and implementation study.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Development of a Rapid Automated Point-of-Care Test formedRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- In-home molecular testing of tongue swabs and sputum to inform household-level screening with diagnostic escalation strategies for tuberculosis contact investigation: a prospective cohort study in South Africa.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Tongue Swab Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra Testing for Tuberculosis Using a Revised Consensus Protocol: A multi-country diagnostic accuracy study.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Tongue swabs (TS) are non-sputum specimens for molecular diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB). Analysis of swabs by Cepheid Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra (Xpert Ultra) is less sensitive than the use of certain manual quantitative polymerase chain reaction methods, but is desirable given the widespread use and familiarity of Xpert Ultra. This study evaluated an easy-to-use protocol for analyzing TS by Xpert Ultra. TS samples from symptomatic South African patients were previously collected and tested by Xpert Ultra using a protocol that requires a heating block (termed Heat + TE). Replicate, paired samples from the same patients were tested by a newly reported method that does not require heating (termed 2:1 SR). The diagnostic accuracy of the two methods was compared. This paired comparison prioritized samples from participants with low sputum bacillary loads, a population in whom TS sensitivity is lowest. Eighty-eight were TB-positive by sputum microbiological reference standard (MRS) and 20 were TB-negative (total
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Registered trials
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.