Human reading versus computer automated reading of chest X-rays in a tuberculosis screening programme in Romania.

One of the interventions in tuberculosis (TB) control is to screen people at high risk for TB with a chest X-ray (CXR) [1]. CXRs in TB screening programmes are usually read by a radiographer or a pulmonologist specialised in TB. In recent years, computer-aided detection (CAD) software has become available for automated reading of CXRs and identifying people with presumptive TB [2, 3] and for TB screening [4, 5]. A systematic review published in 2016 concluded that the evidence of diagnostic accuracy of CAD was limited by the small number of studies, co-authored by owners of the only CAD software on the market at that time, and not generalisable to low TB and HIV settings [6]. The application of CAD software for TB detection has to our knowledge not been assessed in Europe. Footnotes This manuscript has recently been accepted for publication in the European Respiratory Journal . It is published here in its accepted form prior to copyediting and typesetting by our production team. After these production processes are complete and the authors have approved the resulting proofs, the article will move to the latest issue of the ERJ online. Please open or download the PDF to view this article. Conflict of interest: Dr. de Vries has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Gainaru has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Keizer has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Mahler has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Radulescu has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. Zamfirescu has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Prof. Abubakar reports grants from European Commission, grants from UK National Institute for Health Research, during the conduct of the study.