[Is it time to use sputum induction as a complementary specimen collection procedure in adult patients with suspected pulmonary tuberculosis?]

Gastric aspiration (GA) and sputum induction (SI) are used for diagnosing pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) in patients who cannot spontaneously produce sputum. This meta-analysis compares the sensitivity of GA and SI as alternative strategies for TB specimen collection in adult patients and describes procedure preference across Swedish Departments for Infectious Diseases (DID). We searched PubMed for articles on SI, GA and TB in adults. The meta-analysis included six articles (418 patients) and resulted in a crude OR 3.5 (95% CI 1.6-7.8) for positive culture from SI compared with GA. We asked all DID which procedure they currently used for collecting TB specimens (Sep 2019). Answers were received from 27/29 DID of which 67% (18/27) used SI as the primary diagnostic strategy when a patient could not spontaneously submit sputum. In conclusion, SI seems more effective than GA in detecting culture positive pulmonary TB in adult patients.