Abstract: Objective To evaluate the validity of laboratory phenotype technology, immunology technology and molecular biology technology in clinical laboratory diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB). Method A comprehensive search was conducted such as Chinese core journal (selection) database, retrieved from database establishment to April 2023. Covering bacteriology, immunologic, and molecular biological laboratory diagnostic studies of TB. The retrieved documents were screened, extracted, and systematically evaluated for quality. Meta analysis was performed on qualified documents. The combined effect values such as sensitivity (SEN), specificity (SPE), positive likelihood ratio (+LR), negative likelihood ratio (-LR), diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), and area under the summary operating characteristic curve (SROC AUC) were calculated. Result A total of 271 relevant articles were retrieved, 49 qualified articles were included, including 54 bacteriology TB experiments, 39 immunologic TB experiments, and 25 molecular biological TB experiments. Combined SEN, SPE,+LR, -LR, DOR and AUC were 0.47(0.41-0.53)、0.99(0.98-0.99)、40.40(21.80-75.00)、0.53(0.48-0.60)、76.00(40.00-144.00)、0.85(0.82-0.88) in bacteriology experiments, 0.72(0.65-0.78)、0.89(0.85-0.93)、6.70(4.60-9.80)、0.31(0.25-0.39)、22.00(13.00-36.00)、0.88(0.85-0.91) in immunological experiments, 0.78(0.69-0.85)、0.97(0.95-0.98)、26.10(15.10-44.80)、0.23(0.16-0.32)、115.00(62.00-210.00)、0.96(0.94-0.97). Conclusion Bacteriology experiments have a high specificity for diagnosing TB, molecular biology experiments have a high sensitivity for diagnosing TB, and molecular biology experiments have a good validity for diagnosing or excluding TB. The validity of immunological experiments in diagnosing TB is between the above two experiments. Appropriate testing methods could be selected based on different levels and functions of TB diagnostic laboratories.

Key words: Tuberculosis, Laboratory, Phenotype, Immunology, Molecular biology, Validity