Utility of broad-spectrum antibiotics for diagnosing pulmonary tuberculosis in adults : a systematic review and meta-analysis
Abstract
Suboptimal diagnostics for pulmonary tuberculosis drive the use of the so-called trial of antibiotics, a course of broad-spectrum antibiotics without activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis that is given to patients who are mycobacteriology negative but symptomatic, with the aim of distinguishing pulmonary tuberculosis from bacterial lower respiratory tract infection. The underlying assumption—that patients with lower respiratory tract infection will improve, whereas those with pulmonary tuberculosis will not—has an unclear evidence base for such a widely used intervention (at least 26·5 million courses are prescribed per year). We aimed to collate available evidence on the diagnostic performance of the trial of antibiotics.
Citation
Divala , T H , Fielding , K L , Kandulu , C , Nliwasa , M , Sloan , D J , Gupta-Wright , A & Corbett , E L 2020 , ' Utility of broad-spectrum antibiotics for diagnosing pulmonary tuberculosis in adults : a systematic review and meta-analysis ' , Lancet Infectious Diseases , vol. 20 , no. 9 , pp. 1089-1098 . https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30143-2
Publication
Lancet Infectious Diseases
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1473-3099Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Description
Funding: Helse Nord RHF, Wellcome Trust, and the UK Commonwealth Scholarship Commission.Collections
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