Prevalence of tuberculosis in post-mortem studies of HIV-infected adults and children in resource-limited settings: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Tuberculosis (TB) is estimated to be the leading cause of HIV-related deaths globally. However, since HIV-associated TB frequently remains unascertained, we systematically reviewed autopsy studies to determine the true burden of TB at death.

Methods

We systematically searched Medline and Embase databases (to end 2013) for literature reporting on health facility-based autopsy studies of HIV-infected adults and/or children in resource-limited settings. Using forest plots and random-effects meta-analysis, we summarized the TB prevalence found at autopsy and used meta-regression to explore variables associated with autopsy TB prevalence.

Results

We included 36 eligible studies, reporting on 3237 autopsies. Autopsy TB prevalence was extremely heterogeneous (rang

SUBMITTER: Gupta RK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4568896 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature