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
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
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