Predictors of unfavorable responses to therapy in rifampicin-sensitive pulmonary tuberculosis using an integrated approach of radiological presentation and sputum mycobacterial burden

by Narendran Gopalan, Vignes Anand Srinivasalu, Ponnuraja Chinnayan, Banurekha Velayutham, Adhin Bhaskar, Ramesh Santhanakrishnan, Thirumaran Senguttuvan, Sridhar Rathinam, Mahilmaran Ayyamperumal, Kumar Satagopan, Dhanalakshmi Rajendran, Tamizhselvan Manoharan, Sekar Lakshmanan, Paulkumaran Paramasivam, Dhanalakshmi Angamuthu, Mangalambal Ganesan, John Washington Easudoss Arockia, Ramesh Babu Venkatesan, Venkatesan Lakshmipathy, Shivakumar Shanmugham, Balaji Subramanyam, Shakila Shankar, Jawahar Mohideen Shaheed, Baskaran Dhanaraj, Narayanan Paranji Ramiyengar, Soumya Swaminathan, Padmapriyadarsini Chandrasekaran IntroductionDespite the exalted status of sputum mycobacterial load for gauging pulmonary tuberculosis treatment and progress, Chest X-rays supplement valuable information for taking instantaneous therapeutic decisions, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Even though literature on individual parameters is overwhelming, few studies have explored the interaction between radiographic parameters denoting severity with mycobacterial burden signifying infectivity. By using a sophisticated approach of integrating Chest X-ray parameters with sputum mycobacterial characteristics, evaluated at all the three crucial time points of TB treatment namely pre-treatment, end of intensive phase and completion of treatment, utilizing the interactive Cox Proportional Hazards model, we aimed to precisely deduce predictors of unfavorable response to TB treatment. Materials and metho...
Source: PLoS One - Category: Biomedical Science Authors: Source Type: research