%0 Journal Article %T C-Reactive Protein as a Triage Test in Guiding Who Should Get a Confirmatory Test for Pulmonary Tuberculosis Diagnosis among Adults: A Case-Control Proof-of-Concept Study from Urban Tanzania %A Evarist Chiweka %A Thomas Maroa %A Hosiana Temba %A Joseph Ponera %A Sharifa Athumani %A Lujeko Kamwela %A Mohamed Sasamalo %A Rastard Naftari %A Mirambi Tito %A Francis Mhimbira %A Jerry Hella %J Journal of Tuberculosis Research %P 28-44 %@ 2329-8448 %D 2022 %I Scientific Research Publishing %R 10.4236/jtr.2022.101003 %X Background: The current screening tools for tuberculosis (TB) are inadequate resulting in insufficient TB case detection and continued community transmission of TB. As the world is geared into finding missing TB cases, new strategies are called for to aid in rapid identification of TB cases. This study aimed to evaluate the role C-reactive protein (CRP) in triaging patients to get a definitive test for active pulmonary TB diagnosis in urban Tanzania. Methods: A case-control study was conducted among pulmonary TB (PTB) patients and contacts without active PTB. The diagnosis of PTB was performed using GeneXpert MTB/RIF assay and culture. Blood was collected from cases and controls for measuring CRP levels during recruitment. We compared socio-demographic characteristics, clinical and laboratory parameters obtained during recruitment and performed diagnostic accuracy analyses for CRP. Results: Out of all 193 study participants who were involved in final analysis, 147 (76.2%) were males. Pulmonary TB cases had significantly lower median BMI than controls (median 17.4 kg/m² [IQR: 15.8 - 19.2 kg/m²] vs., 24.9 kg/m