
Concomitant pulmonary disease is common among patients with extrapulmonary TB
METHODS: We characterized baseline clinical, radiological and sputum microbiologic data of 885 adult and pediatric TB patients in Chennai and Pune, India, between March 2014 and November 2018.
RESULTS: Of 277 patients with EPTB, enhanced screening led to the identification of 124 (45%) with concomitant PTB, including 53 (19%) who reported a cough >2 weeks; 158 (63%) had an abnormal CXR and 51 (19%) had a positive sputum for TB. Of 70 participants with a normal CXR and without any cough, 14 (20%) had a positive sputum for TB. Overall, the incremental yield of enhanced screening of patients with EPTB to identify concomitant PTB disease was 14% (95% CI 12–16).
CONCLUSIONS: A high proportion of patients classified as EPTB in India have concomitant PTB. Our results support the need for improved symptom and CXR screening, and recommends routine sputum TB microbiology screening of all Indian patients with EPTB.
Keywords: Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection; cough; infectious disease transmission; retraining; symptom evaluation
Document Type: Research Article
Affiliations: 1: Johns Hopkins India, Pune, India 2: Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis, Chennai, India 3: Johns Hopkins India, Pune, India, Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Government Medical College-Johns Hopkins University Clinical Research Site, Pune, India 4: Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA 5: Johns Hopkins India, Pune, India, Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Government Medical College-Johns Hopkins University Clinical Research Site, Pune, India, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA 6: Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Government Medical College, Pune, India 7: District Tuberculosis Office, Thiruvallur, India 8: Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA 9: World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland
Publication date: April 1, 2022
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