Lateral flow urine lipoarabinomannan assay for detecting active tuberculosis in people living with HIV

Post Date: 
2019-10-20
Publication: 
Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
Summary: 


Why is improving the diagnosis of tuberculosis important?



Tuberculosis causes more deaths in people living with HIV than any other disease. The lateral flow urine lipoarabinomannan assay (LF-LAM, Alere Determine™ TB LAM Ag assay) is a World Health Organization-recommended rapid test to assist in detection of active tuberculosis in HIV-positive people with severe HIV disease. Rapid and early tuberculosis diagnosis may allow for prompt treatment and alleviate severe illness and death. An incorrect tuberculosis diagnosis may result in anxiety and unnecessary treatment.



What is the aim of this review?



To find out how accurate LF-LAM is for diagnosing tuberculosis in HIV-positive people with tuberculosis symptoms (symptomatic participants) and those not assessed for tuberculosis symptoms (unselected participants). This is an update of the 2016 Cochrane Review.

Citation: 
Bjerrum S, Schiller I, Dendukuri N, Kohli M, Nathavitharana RR, Zwerling AA, Denkinger CM, Steingart KR, Shah M. Lateral flow urine lipoarabinomannan assay for detecting active tuberculosis in people living with HIV. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2019 Oct 21;10:CD011420. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD011420.pub3
Staff: 
Maunank Shah, MD, PhD
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