Table 3.
Associations between symptoms and sputum smear grade and radiographic indices of disease severity at the time of tuberculosis treatment initiation (week 0) among patients in Tuberculosis Trials Consortium Studies 22, 27, and 28
| Study | Index of Severity | Fever |
Sweats |
Productive Cough |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n (%) | P Value | n (%) | P Value | n (%) | P Value‡ | ||
| 22* (n = 1,075)† | Smear grade | ||||||
| Smear ≥ 1 per high power field | 317/427 (74) | 302/426 (71) | 378/438 (86) | ||||
| Smear < 1 per high power field | 278/570 (49) | <0.001 | 243/565 (43) | <0.001 | 362/577 (63) | <0.001 | |
| Chest radiographic features | |||||||
| Cavitation | 307/463 (66) | 286/460 (62) | 394/475 (83) | ||||
| No cavitation | 275/522 (53) | <0.001 | 250/518 (48) | <0.001 | 341/527 (65) | <0.001 | |
| Bilateral abnormalities | 348/530 (66) | 330/524 (63) | 427/539 (79) | ||||
| Unilateral abnormalities or normal | 272/501 (54) | <0.001 | 239/501 (48) | <0.001 | 343/509 (67) | <0.001 | |
| 27 and 28 (n = 742) | Smear grade | ||||||
| Smear ≥ 1 per high power field | 276/480 (58) | 296/480 (62) | 450/480 (94) | ||||
| Smear < 1 per high power field | 140/230 (61) | 0.39 | 152/230 (66) | 0.25 | 198/230 (86) | <0.001 | |
| Chest radiographic features | |||||||
| Cavitation | 313/545 (57) | 342/545 (63) | 510/545 (94) | ||||
| No cavitation | 120/197 (61) | 0.40 | 124/197 (63) | 0.96 | 168/197 (85) | <0.001 | |
| Bilateral abnormalities | 249/424 (59) | 281/424 (66) | 391/424 (92) | ||||
| Unilateral abnormalities or normal | 184/318 (58) | 0.81 | 185/318 (58) | 0.02 | 287/318 (90) | 0.35 | |
*
Study 22 only because enrollment in Study 23 occurred after beginning of treatment.
†
Missing values for symptoms, smear grade, or chest radiographic features may reduce denominator totals.
‡
P value for Pearson’s chi-squared test.