Publications
Effect of applying a treatment threshold in a population. An example of pulmonary tuberculosis in Rwanda Institute of Tropical Medicine University of Antwerp
Purpose Clinicians often think treatment thresholds should be adapted to the setting. We intended to explore the effect in terms of harm because of false negatives and true and false positives of the application of a treatment threshold for pulmonary tuberculosis from a patient's perspective at different prevalence levels in a developing country. Methods In a cohort of 300 patients with chronic cough, we estimated the prevalence of pulmonary ...
Assessment of an ELISA for serodiagnosis of active pulmonary tuberculosis in a Cuban population KU Leuven
© 2015 Asian Pacific Tropical Medicine Press. Objective: To explore the serodiagnostic potential of the five recombinant Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigens CFP-10 (Rv3874), ESAT-6 (Rv3875), APA (Rv1860), PstS-1 (Rv0934), Ag85A (Rv3804c) and their combination in a Cuban population with active pulmonary tuberculosis. Methods: The serodiagnostic potential of the recombinant antigens rESAT-6, rCFP-10, rAPA, rPstS-1 produced in Escherichia coli, ...
Nontuberculous mycobacteria among pulmonary tuberculosis patients: a retrospective Belgian multicenter study KU Leuven
OBJECTIVES: Currently, there are no European data about the frequency and clinical significance of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) grown from respiratory samples during the treatment of tuberculosis (TB). We determined the frequency and clinical significance of NTM isolated before or during pulmonary tuberculosis treatment in Belgian laboratories. METHODS: We conducted a nationwide retrospective multicenter cohort study on the co-isolation of ...
Evaluation of clinical prediction rules for respiratory isolation of inpatients with suspected pulmonary tuberculosis Institute of Tropical Medicine
Background. In the framework of hospital infection control, various clinical prediction rules (CPRs) for respiratory isolation of patients with suspected pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) have been developed. Our aim was to evaluate their performance in an emergency department setting with a high prevalence of PTB. Methods. We searched the MEDLINE and OVID databases to identify CPRs to predict PTB. We used a previously collected database containing ...
Algorithm for the diagnosis of smear-negative pulmonary tuberculosis in high-incidence resource-constrained settings Institute of Tropical Medicine
OBJECTIVES: Diagnosis of smear-negative pulmonary tuberculosis (SNPT) remains a challenge, particularly in resource-constrained settings. We evaluated a diagnostic algorithm that combines affordable laboratory tools and a clinical prediction rule (CPR). METHODS: We derived, based on published evidence, a diagnostic algorithm for SNPT. Sputum concentration constitutes its first step. In suspects with negative results, SNPT probability is ...
Evaluation of the diagnostic utility of fiberoptic bronchoscopy for smear-negative pulmonary tuberculosis in routine clinical practice Ghent University
We evaluated the diagnostic yield of fiberoptic bronchoscopy for the diagnosis of smear-negative pulmonary tuberculosis in patients treated at a referral hospital in Lima, Peru. Of the 611 patients who underwent the procedure, 140 (23%) were diagnosed with tuberculosis based on the analysis of BAL samples. Being young and being male were significantly associated with positive cultures. In addition, 287 patients underwent post-bronchoscopic ...
Household Air Pollution Is Associated with Chronic Cough but Not Hemoptysis after Completion of Pulmonary Tuberculosis Treatment in Adults, Rural Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo Hasselt University
Little is known about the respiratory health damage related to household air pollution (HAP) in survivors of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB). In a population-based cross-sectional study, we determined the prevalence and associated predictors of chronic cough and hemoptysis in 441 randomly selected PTB survivors living in 13 remote health zones with high TB burden in the South Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Trained ...
Management of pulmonary tuberculosis patients in an urban setting in Zambia: a patient's perspective Institute of Tropical Medicine University of Antwerp
BACKGROUND: Zambia continues to grapple with a high tuberculosis (TB) burden despite a long running Directly Observed Treatment Short course programme. Understanding issues that affect patient adherence to treatment programme is an important component in implementation of a successful TB control programme. We set out to investigate pulmonary TB patient's attitudes to seek health care, assess the care received from government health care centres ...
Diagnostic performance of smear microscopy and incremental yield of Xpert in detection of pulmonary tuberculosis in Rwanda Institute of Tropical Medicine
Background: Tuberculosis control program of Rwanda is currently phasing in light emitting diode-fluorescent microscopy (LED-FM) as an alternative to Ziehl-Neelsen (ZN) smear microscopy. This, alongside the newly introduced Xpert (Cepheid, Sunnyvale, CA, USA) is expected to improve diagnosis of tuberculosis and detection of rifampicin resistance in patients at health facilities. We assessed the accuracy of smear microscopy and the incremental ...