Performance of immune-based and microbiological tests in children with tuberculosis meningitis in Europe: a multicentre Paediatric Tuberculosis Network European Trials Group (ptbnet) study

Abstract

Existing immunological and microbiological TB tests have suboptimal sensitivity in children with TBM, with each test producing false-negative results in a substantial proportion of patients. Combining immune-based tests with CSF culture and CSF PCR results in considerably higher positive diagnostic yields, and should therefore be standard clinical practice in high-resource settings.