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. 2023 Apr 28;13(1):6976.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-32810-2.

Expedited diagnosis of pediatric tuberculosis using Truenat MTB-Rif Dx and GeneXpert MTB/RIF

Urvashi B Singh  1 , Manjula Singh  2 , Sangeeta Sharma  3 , Neeraj Mahajan  4 , Kiran Bala  4 , Abhinav Srivastav  4 , Kh Jitenkumar Singh  5 , M V V Rao  5 , Rakesh Lodha  6 , Sushil K Kabra  6
Affiliations

Expedited diagnosis of pediatric tuberculosis using Truenat MTB-Rif Dx and GeneXpert MTB/RIF

Urvashi B Singh et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Rapid, cost-effective, and sensitive diagnostic assays are essential for global tuberculosis (TB) control, especially in high TB burden, resource-limited settings. The current study was designed to evaluate diagnostic accuracy of Truenat MTB-Rif Dx (MolBio) in children less than 18 years of age, with symptoms suggestive of TB. Gastric aspirate, induced sputum, and broncho-alveolar lavage samples were subjected simultaneously to AFB-smear, GeneXpert MTB/RIF, liquid culture (MGIT-960) and Truenat MTB-Rif Dx. The index-test results were evaluated against microbiological reference standards (MRS). Truenat MTB-Rif Dx had a sensitivity of 57.1%, specificity of 92% against MRS. The sensitivity and specificity of the Truenat MTB-RIF Dx compared with liquid culture was 58.7% and 87.5% while GeneXpert MTB/RIF was 56% and 91.4%. The performance of both GeneXpert MTB/RIF and Truenat MTB-Rif Dx are comparable. Result of our study demonstrates that Truenat MTB-Rif can aid in early and efficient diagnosis of TB in children.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Results of liquid culture (LC), AFB smear (AFB), GeneXpert (GX) and Truenat tests for all samples.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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