Bulletin of the World Health Organization

Structured approaches for the screening and diagnosis of childhood tuberculosis in a high prevalence region of South Africa

Mark Hatherill, Monique Hanslo, Tony Hawkridge, Francesca Little, Lesley Workman, Hassan Mahomed, Michele Tameris, Sizulu Moyo, Hennie Geldenhuys, Willem Hanekom, Lawrence Geiter & Gregory Hussey

Volume 88, Number 4, April 2010, 312-320

Table 1. Results of chest radiograph assessment by three independent paediatric reviewers, grouped by certainty of tuberculosis diagnosis, South Africa, 2001–2006

Diagnostic certainty^a	Reviewer 1		Reviewer 2		Reviewer 3		Final classification
Diagnostic certainty^a	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
Highly likely to have tuberculosis	16	1.1	29	2.0	171	11.8
Likely to have tuberculosis	20	1.4	38	2.6	323	22.4
Suspected of having tuberculosis	124	8.6	145	10.0	242	16.7
Positive	160	11.1	212	14.6	736	50.9	271	18.8
Inconclusive	45	3.1	35	2.4	82	5.7
Abnormal but not tuberculosis	102	7.1	139	9.6	312	21.6
Normal	1038	71.8	778	53.9	59	4.1
Negative	1185	82.0	952	65.9	453	31.4	1174	81.2
Not read	100	6.9	281	19.5	256	17.7
Total	1445	100	1445	100	1445	100	1445	100

^a “Highly likely to have tuberculosis”, “likely to have tuberculosis” and “suspected of having tuberculosis” were classified as positive; “inconclusive”, “abnormal but not tuberculosis” and “normal” were classified as negative. Final chest radiograph classification was determined by agreement of at least two reviewers.