Introduction: Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid (VIA) has been adopted for cervical cancer screening in Kenya and other Low-Middle Income Countries despite providing suboptimal results among HIV-infected women. It is mostly performed by nurses in health centers. Innovative ways of improving the performance of VIA in HIV-infected women are desired.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: To improve tuberculosis case-finding, rapid, non-sputum triage tests need to be developed according to the World Health Organization target product profile (TPP) (>90% sensitivity, >70% specificity). We prospectively evaluated and compared artificial intelligence-based, computer-aided detection software, CAD4TBv7, and C-reactive protein assay (CRP) as triage tests at health facilities in Lesotho and South Africa.
Methods: Adults (≥18 years) presenting with ≥1 of the 4 cardinal tuberculosis symptoms were consecutively recruited between February 2021 and April 2022.
Background: Estimation of prevalence and diagnostic test accuracy in tuberculosis (TB) prevalence surveys suffer from reference standard and verification biases. The former is attributed to the imperfect reference test used to bacteriologically confirm TB disease. The latter occurs when only the participants screening positive for any TB-compatible symptom or chest X-ray abnormality are selected for bacteriological testing (verification).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Use of computer-aided detection (CAD) software is recommended to improve tuberculosis screening and triage, but threshold determination is challenging if reference testing has not been performed in all individuals. We aimed to determine such thresholds through secondary analysis of the 2019 Lesotho national tuberculosis prevalence survey.
Methods: Symptom screening and chest radiographs were performed in participants aged ≥15 years; those symptomatic or with abnormal chest radiographs provided samples for Xpert MTB/RIF and culture testing.
Background: Cervical cancer is a major health burden and the second most common cancer after breast cancer among women in Kenya. Worldwide cervical cancer constitutes 3.1% of all cancer cases.
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