Table 1– Characteristics of included studies

First author [ref.]	Samples n	Country	Setting	Date of study	Study design	Reference standard	Sample type	CD4 count cells·μL⁻¹	Females %	Mean age years	Symptoms
Reddy [30]	889	Peru	Urban	February 2007–December 2007	Cross-sectional	L-J	Sputum	Mean±sd 241±184	37.2	34	Absent
Vargas [31]	212	Peru	Urban	April 2002–October 2003	Case–control	L-J	Induced sputum, string	Median 52.9	NR	NR	Present
Ha [32]	738	Vietnam	Urban	May 2008–November 2008	Cross-sectional	MGIT	Sputum	NR	1.9	29	Present
Caws [35]	88	Vietnam	Urban	June 2006–November 2006	Cross-sectional	MGIT and L-J	CSF	NR	NR	NR	Present
Ha [36]	17	Vietnam	Urban	April 2008–November 2008	Cross-sectional	MGIT	Sputum, gastric aspirates, pleural fluid, CSF	NR	4.3	6.4	Present
Makamure [37]	39	Zimbabwe	Urban	April 2011–March 2012	Cross-sectional	MGIT and L-J	Sputum	Median 160 (IQR 84–285)	NR	NR	Present
Moore [38]	294	Peru	Urban	April 2003–July 2004	Cross-sectional	BacT and L-J	Sputum, gastric washing	NR	38.5	32	Present
Oberhelman [39]	44	Peru	Urban	2004–2007	Case–control	L-J	Gastric, nasopharyngeal aspirates, stools	NR	51.6	3	Present
Shah [40]	388	South Africa	Rural	June 2008–April 2009	Cross-sectional	MGIT and Middlebrook 7H10 agar	Sputum	Median 161 (IQR 72–307)	NR	NR	Present
Solomon [41]	366	India	Urban	July 2009–March 2010	Cross-sectional	BACTEC TB 460	Sputum	NR	37.5	38.5	Present

MGIT (mycobacteria growth indicator tube) and BACTEC are manufactured by BD Biosciences (Franklin Lakes, NJ, USA), and BacT is manufactured by bioMerieux (Lyon, France). L-J: Löwenstein-Jensen; CSF: cerebrospinal fluid; NR: not reported; IQR: interquartile range.