Journal article

Diagnosis of childhood tuberculosis and host RNA expression in Africa

ST Anderson, M Kaforou, AJ Brent, VJ Wright, CM Banwell, G Chagaluka, AC Crampin, HM Dockrell, N French, MS Hamilton, ML Hibberd, F Kern, PR Langford, L Ling, R Mlotha, THM Ottenhoff, S Pienaar, V Pillay, JAG Scott, H Twahir Show all

New England Journal of Medicine | MASSACHUSETTS MEDICAL SOC | Published : 2014

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Improved diagnostic tests for tuberculosis in children are needed. We hypothesized that transcriptional signatures of host blood could be used to distinguish tuberculosis from other diseases in African children who either were or were not infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). METHODS: The study population comprised prospective cohorts of children who were undergoing evaluation for suspected tuberculosis in South Africa (655 children), Malawi (701 children), and Kenya (1599 children). Patients were assigned to groups according to whether the diagnosis was culture-confirmed tuberculosis, culture-negative tuberculosis, diseases other than tuberculosis, or latent tube..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Awarded by Wellcome Trust


Funding Acknowledgements

Supported by a grant from the European Union Action for Diseases of Poverty Program (Sante-2006-105-061), a Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Program Core Grant, United Kingdom (084679-Z-08-Z, to Dr. Heyderman), and additional grants from the Wellcome Trust (084323 and 088316, to Dr. Wilkinson; 081835, to Dr. Scott; and 081697, to Dr. Brent); the study also made use of infrastructure and staff at the Wellcome Trust-supported programs in Blantyre, Malawi, and Kilifi, Kenya, the University of Cape Town (084323, 077092), the Imperial College Wellcome Trust Centre for Clinical Tropical Medicine, and the Imperial College Wellcome Trust Centre for Global Health Research.