Figueredo, Lida Jouca de AssisMiranda, Silvana Spíndola deSantos, Lucas Benício dosManso, Caroline Gontijo GonçalvesSoares, Valéria MartinsAlves, SuelyVater, Maria CláudiaKritski, Afrânio LineuCarvalho, Wânia da SilvaPádua, Cristiane Menezes deAlmeida, Isabela Neves de2023-01-162023-01-162020FIGUEREDO, L. J. de A. at al. Cost analysis of smear microscopy and the Xpert assay for tuberculosis diagnosis: average turnaround time. Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical, v. 53, 2020. Disponível em: <https://www.scielo.br/j/rsbmt/a/QVfJCfTHD3KBYK3TRPbK4Gd/citation/?lang=en>. Acesso em: 11 out. 2022.1678-9849http://www.repositorio.ufop.br/jspui/handle/123456789/15945Introduction: Rapid and accurate tuberculosis detection is critical for improving patient diagnosis and decreasing tuberculosis transmission. Molecular assays can significantly increase laboratory costs; therefore, the average time and economic impact should be evaluated before implementing a new technology. The aim of this study was to evaluate the cost and average turnaround time of smear microscopy and Xpert assay at a university hospital. Methods: The turnaround time and cost of the laboratory diagnosis of tuberculosis were calculated based on the mean cost and activity based costing (ABC). Results: The average turnaround time for smear microscopy was 16.6 hours while that for Xpert was 24.1 hours. The Xpert had a mean cost of USD 17.37 with an ABC of USD 10.86, while smear microscopy had a mean cost of USD 13.31 with an ABC of USD 6.01. The sensitivity of smear microscopy was 42.9% and its specificity was 99.1%, while the Xpert assay had a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 96.7%. Conclusions: The Xpert assay has high accuracy; however, the turnaround time and cost of smear microscopy were lower than those of Xpert.en-USabertoMycobacterium tuberculosisMolecular diagnosticPulmonary tuberculosisHealth systemArtigo publicado em periodicoThis is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons license. Fonte: o PDF do artigo.https://doi.org/10.1590/0037-8682-0314-2020