Clinical practice guideline for the evaluation, treatment, and follow-up of children in contact with patients with pulmonary tuberculosis in Colombia.

Introduction: The available clinical practice guidelines on tuberculosis infection are not exclusive to the pediatric population.

Objective: To formulate evidence-based recommendations for the evaluation, treatment, and follow-up of children in contact with patients with pulmonary tuberculosis in Colombia.

Methods: A multidisciplinary development panel (composed by clinical and field experts, researchers, and methodologists who declared conflicts of interests), including patient representatives, and decision-makers formulated 10 questions and prioritized outcomes related to diagnosis (clinical evaluation, chest X-ray, and interferon-gamma release assays-IGRA), treatment (efficacy of regimens in different clinical scenarios), and follow-up (monitoring and strategies to increase adherence) for children exposed to tuberculosis. We conducted systematic literature reviews to identify guidelines, systematic reviews, and primary studies. We assessed these sources' quality and risk of bias with specific tools. We synthesized the evidence narratively and, in some cases, performed de novo meta-analyses (diagnostic and network meta-analyses). We evaluated the certainty of evidence using the GRADE system. We used the GRADE evidence-to-recommendation framework to formulate the recommendations.

Results: We recommend 1) the use of IGRA tests to identify tuberculosis infection and chest X-rays to screen for active tuberculosis in children exposed to tuberculosis, 2) short instead of extended regimens for children with and without immunosuppression, 3) levofloxacin or susceptibility-guided regimens in cases of contact with drug-resistant tuberculosis, 4) monthly clinical follow-up during the treatment, 5) the implementation of comprehensive approaches to identify barriers to encourage treatment adherence.

Conclusions: The guideline panel provides context-specific, evidence-based recommendations for assessing and treating children exposed to tuberculosis in Colombia.