Symptom screening rules to identify active pulmonary tuberculosis: Findings from the Zambian South African Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS Reduction (ZAMSTAR) trial prevalence surveys.

ABSTRACT:

Background

High tuberculosis (TB) burden countries should consider systematic screening among adults in the general population. We identified symptom screening rules to be used in addition to cough ≥2 weeks, in a context where X-ray screening is not feasible, aiming to increase the sensitivity of screening while achieving a specificity of ≥85%.

Methods

We used 2010 Zambia South Africa Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS Reduction (ZAMSTAR) survey data: a South African (SA) training dataset, a SA testing dataset for internal validation and a Zambian dataset for external validation. Regression analyses investigated relationships between symptoms or combinations of symptoms and active disease. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated for candidate rules.

Results

Among all parti

SUBMITTER: Claassens MM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5336223 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature