Early chest X-ray in persons with presumptive tuberculosis increases Xpert® MTB/RIF diagnostic yield and efficiency.

Adult presumptive tuberculosis (TB) patients ( = 1690) were screened for TB using a questionnaire, chest X-ray (CXR) and sputum microscopy for acid-fast bacilli (AFB); Mycobacterium tuberculosis culture was performed for 74% of the patients and Xpert MTB/RIF was done for 17.2%. Among patients recruited, 943 (55.