<p>The Diagnostic Performance of Chest-X-Ray and Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate in Comparison with GeneXpert^® for Tuberculosis Case Notification Among Patients Living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus in a Resource-Limited Setting: A Cross-Sectional Study</p>

A study of analysis on prevalence, serological marker and prognosis of tuberculosis in tertiary care hospital

BACKGROUND

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease responsible for a significant cause of ill health. According to the WHO global tuberculosis report 2021. 9.9 million cases fell sick with TB in 2020. Significantly, the prevalence of tuberculosis in India is 25%.

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the prevalence of tuberculosis in the suburban areas of the metropolitan city in South India. To analyze the serological marker and prognosis of tuberculosis among males and females. To determine the importance of molecular testing - PCR confirmation on TB after AFB smear.

METHODS

A retrospective study to analyze 462 patients enrolled by the respiratory medicine department on suspecting pulmonary- 356 (M-264 & F-92) and extra-pulmonary-106 (M-73&F-33) patients and diagnosed Zhiel-Neelsen staining, Mantoux test, Chip-based RT-PCR test, Erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and analyzed serological test such as C-Reactive Protein, Chemiluminescence immune assay.

RESULTS

23 patients were positive in Ziehl-Neelsen staining, 65 were positive in molecular True-Nat PCR test, Mantoux skin test induration in 10 patients, 98 TB Positive patients examined in the serological analysis, 1 & 3 patients reacted in HIV/HBsAg, and HBsAg test respectively, by chemiluminescence immunoassay, 8 PTB and 4 EPTB and 47 non-TB patients were positive in C-reactive protein, 46 TB and 94 non-TB patients detected abnormal values out of these 160 patients in ESR test.

CONCLUSION

The Prevalence of tuberculosis is significantly rising, especially in the middle-aged population. The rapid molecular diagnostics to detect TB are highly sensitive and specific. Serological markers are essential for the analysis of disease prognosis and need to focus on the guidance of DOTS and RNTCP to End TB.

Diagnosis, Management, and Prognosis of Spinal Tuberculosis: A Case Report

Spinal tuberculosis (TB) is a condition that affects numerous people around the world. The incidence of TB prior to the pandemic was decreasing by about 1.8% per year; however, COVID-19 has complicated this incidence rate leading to an increase of 4.5% in 2020 and 2021. Spinal TB is a rare event in all TB patients. The management could be multifactorial including location, severity, and symptom, and this case demonstrates an example of issues to consider in the diagnosis and management of patients. This is a case of a patient presenting with back pain which was subsequently diagnosed as spinal TB. We will review this patient's presentation and consideration for multifactorial opinions in the literature. This literature review demonstrates that there is no one treatment option available. Providers need to tailor treatment to each individual case. This is an example of a case that illustrates that diagnosis of spinal TB is not straightforward and clinicians may have to make a judgment call and treat prophylactically to prevent a poor prognosis.

Transcriptional Biomarkers for Treatment Monitoring of Pulmonary Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis: Protocol for a Prospective Observational Study in Indonesia

Many blood-based gene expression biomarkers for monitoring tuberculosis (TB) treatment have been suggested so far, but promising biomarker results for drug-resistant TB treatment response have not been studied. This protocol presents a prospective observational study in Indonesia to profile the human blood transcriptome for predicting the response to drug-resistant TB treatment, focusing on pulmonary TB, and to adapt the specific RNA signature to the qRT-PCR platform. Longitudinal blood samples will be collected from 44 subjects with rifampicin resistant TB, confirmed by Xpert MTB/RIF, and 52 healthy controls. RNA-Seq will be performed to identify changes in the transcriptome following TB treatment. A discriminative RNA signature will be chosen and translated into a score for use in a quantitative PCR-based assay. This study will provide crucial information to guide the discovery and design of a clinically implementable tool to monitor the response of TB treatment.