The performance of laboratory tests to diagnose pulmonary tuberculosis is dependent on the quality of the sputum sample tested. The relative merits of sputum collection methods to improve tuberculosis diagnosis are poorly characterised. We therefore aimed to investigate the effects of sputum collection methods on tuberculosis diagnosis.

中文翻译：

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结核病诊断痰液采集方法的比较：系统评价以及成对和网络荟萃分析。

诊断肺结核的实验室检查的效果取决于所检测痰样本的质量。痰液采集方法在改善结核病诊断方面的相对优点尚不清楚。因此，我们的目的是研究痰液采集方法对结核病诊断的影响。