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Table 1 Summary of studies using chest CT, 18F-FDG PET/CT, or MRI in asymptomatic contacts recently exposed to TB with normal radiographs

From: CT and 18F-FDG PET abnormalities in contacts with recent tuberculosis infections but negative chest X-ray

First author

Year

Country

No. of contacts* (age range)

No. of contacts with CT or PET abnormalities

Bacterial/molecular Testing

Anti-TB treatment

Follow-up without anti-TB treatment/Developing TB during follow-up

Any

Lung** parenchyma

Mediastinal LN

Tested

Positive

Chest CT

Delacourt [13]

1993

France

15 (0–10 s)

9 [60%]

0 [0%]

9 [60%]

Not separable

Not described

Not described

Duran [14]

1996

Spain

22 (0–10 s)

14 [64%]

4 [18%]

14 [64%]

8

4 [50%]

Not described

Not described

Katakura [15]

1999

Japan

4 (0 s)

4 [100%]

3 [75%]

1 [25%]

4

0 [0%]

4 [100%]

None

Baghaie [16]

2005

Iran

64 (4–14)

25 [39%]

Not separable

Not separable

Not described

Not described

Yoshiyama [17]

2008

Japan

21 (20–40 s)

7 [33%]

7 [33%]

0 [0%]

7

1 [14%]

7 [100%]

None

Lew [18]

2009

Korea

46 (16–20)

12 [26%]

12 [26%]

0 [0%]

11

0 [0%]

11 [92%]

1†/1

Lee [19]

2010

Korea

39 (20 s)

9 [23%]‡

9 [23%]

0 [0%]

9

3 [33%]

9 [100%]

None

Hirama [20]‡†

2011

Japan

34 (adults)

4 [12%]

4 [12%]

0 [0%]

Not described

4 [100%]

None

Garrido [21]

2012

Spain

11 (< 4 years)

9 [81%]

7 [64%]

9[81%]

11

1 [9%]

11 [100%]

None

Fujikawa [22]

2014

Japan

110 (20–50 s)

12 [11%]

12 [11%]

0 [0%]

12

3 [25%]

12 [100%]

None

Catho [23] ‡‡

2015

France

5 (child)

1 [20%]

1 [20%]

1 [20%]

1

1 [100%]

1 [100%]

None

Lu [24]

2016

China

27 (10 s)

6 [22%]

6 [22%]

0 [0%]

6

0 [0%]

6 [100%]

None

Ziemele [25]

2017

Latvia

Unknown (0–17)

145 [unknown]

Not separable

145

7 [5%]

145 [100%]

None

Lee [26]‡‡†

2017

Korea

6 (30 s)

2 [33%]

2 [33%]

0 [0%]

2

0 [0%]

0 [0%]

2/1

Shimizu [27]

2017

Japan

52 (0–10 s)

10 [19%]

Not separable

10

0 [0%]

Not separable

None

Moreno-Ballester [28]

2018

Spain

52 (0–10 s)

27 [52%]

17 [33%]

27 [52%]

Not described

27 [52%]

None

Yoshiyama [29]

2019

Japan

229 (10–80 s)

24 [10%]

24 [10%]

0 [0%]

24

7 [29%]

23 [96%]

1/follow-up loss at 3 mo

Zhou [30]

2019

China

59 (10 s)

51 [86%]

Not separable

Not separable

35 [69%]

15***/1

Yoon [31] ‡‡‡

2020

Korea

17 (50–70 s)

14 [82%]

14 [82%]

0 [0%]

Not described

0 [0%]

14/0

Wang [32]

2020

China

135 (10–60 s)

4 [3%]

Not separable

4

0 [0%]

4 [100%]

None

Mok [33]

2021

Korea

72 (adults)

14 [19%]

14 [19%]

0 [0%]

14

1 [7%]

0 [0%]

14***/1

18F-FDG PET/CT

Ghesani [34]

2014

USA

5 (20–40 s)

3 [60%]‡‡‡†

0 [0%]

3 [60%]

Not described

0 [0%]

3***/0

Esmail [35]‡‡‡‡

2016

UK

35 (20–30 s)

16 [46%]

10 [29%]

16 [46%]

16

0 [0%]

0 [0%]

16***/4

18F-FDG PET/MRI

Molton [36]

2019

Singapore

30 (0–50 s)

9 [30%]

4 [13%]

6 [20%]

Not described

0 [0%]

9***/0

Naftalin [37]

2020

Singapore

3 (20–50 s)

2 [67%]

2 [67%]

2 [67%]

Not described

Not described

Not described

  1. TB —tuberculosis; CT —computed tomography; 18F-FDG— 18-fluorodeoxyglucose; PET —positron emission tomography; MRI —magnetic resonance imaging
  2. Data in parentheses and brackets indicate age range and percentage, respectively
  3. *Contacts having symptoms or abnormal X-ray findings were not counted
  4. **CT abnormalities are pauci-nodular infiltrations in the lung parenchyma, not including healed TB sequelae
  5. ***LTBI treatment was applied to in part or entire contacts during the follow-up
  6. †One contact with a 5-mm nodule developed active TB during follow-up. It was not clearly described whether the contact received LTBI treatment
  7. ‡Seven of nine contacts showing CT abnormalities were reported to have cough or sputum
  8. ‡†Two of four patients treated with anti-TB medication turned out to have been misdiagnosed after the completion of treatment
  9. ‡‡Baseline CT was normal, but follow-up CT after 3 months revealed two consolidative lesions in the right inferior lobe with mediastinal lymphadenopathy
  10. ‡‡†One of the two contacts had a transient increase in pauci-nodular lesions, followed by a decrease during 1 year
  11. ‡‡‡Small noncalcified nodules spontaneously regressed in 2 of 14 patients after 1 year, whereas small noncalcified nodules remained stable in 12 of 14 patients
  12. ‡‡‡†We did not count one contact having 18F-PET/CT findings of healed TB
  13. ‡‡‡‡Eight of 10 contacts with subclinical lung abnormalities and 8 of 25 contacts without the abnormalities had metabolic uptakes in mediastinal LNs