A higher test sensitivity increases the number of infections averted but has very little impact on costs.
Because higher test sensitivity allows a reduction of sample size, standardization is also promoted for ethical reasons as a mean to reduce animal use [25], [26].
PCR offers both a substantially higher test sensitivity and a more rapid turnaround time [ 21, 22].
Their higher test sensitivity may be a result of performing two sputum cultures for most (94.6%) participants, as well as performing urine LAM testing on frozen samples in a controlled laboratory-environment.
Urine LAM testing may be beneficial in settings with limited capacity for sputum smear microscopy or when a timely diagnosis of TB is paramount, but would greatly benefit by yielding a higher test sensitivity.
22, 30, 31 Performance-based measures are required since it evaluates physical function in a more objective way, provides higher test sensitivity, and executes real effort from participants to perform a variety of tasks.
While the test specificity was similar to our findings, the higher test sensitivity was likely due to inclusion of patients with higher bacillary loads, as 34% of their participants had mycobacterium detected in blood cultures, as well as sicker hospitalized patients.
For population-based colon cancer screening programs that rely upon the non-invasive detection of pre-cancerous adenomatous polyps, a high test sensitivity is critical in order to accurately predict the presence or absence of a adenomatous polyp and limit false-negative testing.
Our results suggest that the remarkable variation in immune recognition patterns for FESF require multi-antigen combination to cover the different antibody responses and thus achieve the highest possible test sensitivity.
These results, when considered in the context of our findings, suggest that perhaps neither the public nor physicians share patients' highest priority for better test sensitivity.
