Diagnostic implications and inpatient mortality related to tuberculosis at Jimma Medical Center, southwest Ethiopia

The Burden of Bacteriologically Negative TB Diagnosis: A Four-Year Review of Tuberculosis Cases at a Tertiary Facility

Aim

We aimed to investigate the demographic and clinical factors associated with TB mortality in patients managed at a tertiary TB referral center.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective review of the medical records of 1,933 TB patients seen between January 2017 and December 2020 at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) Chest Department in Accra, Ghana. TB mortality was defined as any TB patient who died for any reason during the course of treatment. Multivariable logistic regression was used to estimate adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals for factors associated with TB mortality.

Results

A total of 1,933 patients with TB were registered at the chest clinic over the study period. Males accounted for 1,227 (63.5%), and majority of participants were between 24 and 64 years old. Pulmonary TB (PTB) and extrapulmonary TB (EPTB) cases accounted for 51% and 48.4% of the total TB cases, respectively. A significant proportion (69%) of the patients managed for TB had no bacteriological confirmation of the disease. About 34% of tested TB patients were HIV positive. Mortality among patients was 33.6%. In a multivariable regression model, patients with HIV positive status had over 3-fold increased risk of mortality, compared to those with HIV negative status. TB patients diagnosed empirically had an increased risk of death compared to those with a confirmed diagnosis.

Conclusion

The proportion of clinically diagnosed TB was high among the patients seen at the chest clinic. Mortality was high among the patients with HIV/TB coinfection as well as in patients with empirical TB diagnosis.

Diagnosis and Management of Adult Tuberculosis Patients Admitted to a Rural Hospital in Ethiopia

Background  Ethiopia is one of the countries in the world with the highest rate of tuberculosis (TB). The aim of this study is to describe the characteristics of the patients with TB admitted to a rural hospital in Ethiopia in terms of both diagnosis and clinical management. Methods A retrospective descriptive observational study was conducted. Data were collected from patients older than 13 years who were admitted to the Gambo General Hospital for TB between May 2016 and September 2017. The variables studied were age, sex, symptoms, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) serology, nutritional status, presence of anemia, chest x-ray or other complementary tests, type of diagnosis (smear microscopy, Xpert MTB-RIF (Cepheid, Sunnyvale, California, USA), or clinical diagnosis), treatment received, outcome, and days of admission. Results One hundred eighty-six patients, aged 13 years and older, were admitted to the TB unit. About 51.6% were female, and the median age was 35 years (interquartile range (IQR) 25-50). Cough was the most frequent symptom on admission (88.7%), and contact with a TB patient was only recognized by 22 patients (11.8%). HIV serology was performed in 148 patients (79.6%); seven were positive (4.7%). About 69.3% met the criteria for malnutrition (body mass index (BMI) <18.5). Most patients, 173 (93%), presented with pulmonary TB and were new cases (94.1%). Patients were diagnosed by clinical parameters in 75% of cases. Smear microscopy was performed in 148 patients, of which 46 (31.1%) were positive, and Xpert MTB-RIF results were only obtained in 16 patients, of which 6 (37.5%) were positive. Chest x-rays were performed in most patients (71%) and were suggestive of TB in 111 (84.1%). The average length of hospital stay was 32 days (confidence interval (CI) 13-50.5). Women tend to be younger than men, have more extrapulmonary TB, and were admitted longer. Nineteen patients died during admission (10.2%). Patients who die were more frequently malnourished (92.9% of those who die were malnourished compared to 67.1% of those who did not die, p = 0.036), tend to be admitted for a shorter time than the survivors and receive more concomitant antibiotic treatment. Conclusions In this rural Ethiopian setting, patients admitted to the hospital for TB are often malnourished (67.1%), the main presentation is pulmonary, mortality is one in 10 admissions and very often receive antibiotics in association with TB treatment (40%).