Background To evaluate the diagnostic performance of targeted next-generation sequencing (tNGS) for tuberculosis (TB) in patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and to compare it with traditional diagnostic methods. Methods A total of 66 HIV patients were enrolled, including 25 with confirmed TB infection and 41 without TB. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS 22.0. Diagnostic performance was assessed using the chi-square test. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), Kappa coefficient, and the area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) were calculated for tNGS. McNemar’s chi-square test was used to compare the diagnostic efficacy of tNGS with other methods. Results The sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, AUC, and Kappa of tNGS were 76.00%, 100.00%, 100.00%, 87.20%, 0.880, and 0.797 respectively, all superior to traditional methods. When combined with Xpert, the sensitivity increased to 84.00%, and the AUC improved to 0.920, indicating strong diagnostic complementarity. Conclusion tNGS exhibits high sensitivity and specificity for diagnosing TB in patients with HIV. Notably, the combination of tNGS with Xpert further enhances diagnostic efficacy, underscoring its potential clinical promotion value.
Song et al. (2026) studied this question.