Intermittent tuberculosis treatment for patients with isoniazid intolerance or drug resistance.

Setting: Twenty tuberculosis (TB) clinics in the United States and Canada.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of a 6-month intermittent regimen of rifampin (RMP), pyrazinamide (PZA) and ethambutol (EMB) in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) negative patients with culture-confirmed pulmonary or extra-pulmonary tuberculosis and either isoniazid (INH) resistance or INH intolerance.

Design: Patients were enrolled in a single-arm clinical trial to receive intermittent dosing after at least 14 initial daily doses of RMP+PZA+EMB.

Tuberculosis, incarceration, and HIV at a crossroads in Guyana.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to describe the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of patients dually infected with HIV and tuberculosis (TB) in Guyana.

Methods: The data for this study were obtained as part of a related project conducted to determine the prevalence of diabetes mellitus among TB patients in Guyana. From April to June 2006, a convenience sample of 100 patients was selected from those attending three TB clinics in Guyana and a structured questionnaire was used to collect relevant sociodemographic and risk factor data.

Tuberculosis and diabetes in Guyana.

Objectives: This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of diabetes mellitus among tuberculosis (TB) patients attending three TB clinics in Guyana.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among TB patients attending TB clinics in three regions in Guyana. A structured questionnaire was used to collect demographic, clinical, and risk factor data.

The lack of association between bacille Calmette-Guerin vaccination and clustering of Aboriginals with tuberculosis in western Canada.

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major health problem for Aboriginal people in Canada, with high rates of clustering of active TB cases. Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccination has been used as a preventive measure against TB in this high-risk population.

Objectives: The study was designed to determine if BCG vaccination in Aboriginal people influenced recent TB transmission through an analysis of the clustering of TB cases.

Tuberculous lymphadenitis in Manitoba: incidence, clinical characteristics and treatment.

Background: Tuberculous lymphadenitis (TBL) is an important form of extrapulmonary tuberculosis (TB). Recent studies have shown an increase in TBL in Canada.

Objectives: To determine the incidence of TBL in Manitoba and to identify the characteristics associated with its presentation, diagnosis and treatment

Methods: Population data from the Manitoba Health Population Registry, the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch of Health Canada, and Statistics Canada were used to calculate incidence.

Strain-related virulence of the dominant Mycobacterium tuberculosis strain in the Canadian province of Manitoba.

Setting: The Canadian province of Manitoba.

Objective: To confirm the putative hypervirulence observed in Mycobacterium tuberculosis Type1 strain and further characterize the progression and manifestation of pulmonary tuberculosis caused by this strain in comparison to other common clinical isolates from Manitoba.

Design: C3H and BALB/c mice were exposed to aerosols either of Type1, Type2, Type5, Type72 or H37Rv strain to study their respective survival profiles.

Conventional and molecular epidemiology of tuberculosis in Manitoba.

Background: To describe the demographic and geographic distribution of tuberculosis (TB) in Manitoba, thus determining risk factors associated with clustering and higher incidence rates in distinct subpopulations.

Methods: Data from the Manitoba TB Registry was compiled to generate a database on 855 patients with tuberculosis and their contacts from 1992-1999. Recovered isolates of M.

Identification of a predominant isolate of Mycobacterium tuberculosis using molecular and clinical epidemiology tools and in vitro cytokine responses.

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) surveillance programs in Canada have established that TB in Canada is becoming a disease of geographically and demographically distinct groups. In 1995, treaty status aboriginals from the province of Manitoba accounted for 46% of the disease burden of this sub-group in Canada. The TB incidence rates are dramatically high in certain reserves of Manitoba and are equivalent to rates in African countries.

The molecular epidemiology of tuberculosis in western Canada.

Objective: To define the molecular epidemiology of TB in western Canada, and in particular the risk factors for clustering.

Measurements: We prospectively identified all positive cultures from newly diagnosed cases of TB diagnosed between February 1995 and January 1997 and carried out restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) testing on all isolates.

Results: Of 956 cases identified, 944 fulfilled the entry criteria.

Epidemiology and clinical spectrum of blastomycosis diagnosed at Manitoba hospitals.

Blastomyces dermatitidis is a dimorphic fungus endemic to Canada and the United States. Few reports regarding blastomycosis in Canada have been published. We retrospectively reviewed the medical charts of 143 patients with confirmed cases of blastomycosis diagnosed in hospitals in Manitoba, Canada, from 1988 through 1999.

Drug resistance study of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Canada, February 1, 1993 to January 31, 1994.

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to first-line antituberculosis drugs in Canada.

Methods: M. tuberculosis isolates from one third of all culture-positive tuberculosis (TB) cases diagnosed between February 1, 1993 to January 31, 1994 in Canada were collected prospectively.

Tuberculous mycotic aneurysm of the aorta: review of published medical and surgical experience.

To define the epidemiology, pathogenesis, pathology, presentation, and management of tuberculous mycotic aneurysm of the aorta (TBAA) in the therapeutic era, we reviewed all of the cases reported in the English language literature from 1945 to the present. To the 39 cases in the published literature, we add two cases of our own. Although it is exceedingly rare, the prevalence of this lesion has remained relatively constant.

M. tuberculosis molecular variation in CNS infection: evidence for strain-dependent neurovirulence.

Objective: To determine the molecular diversity among Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates associated with central nervous system tuberculosis (CNS TB) in a defined cohort of HIV uninfected patients.

Design/methods: A retrospective analysis was performed of clinical and laboratory data for all patients with CNS TB diagnosed in Manitoba, Canada, between 1979 and 1996. Restriction fragment-length polymorphisms (RFLP) of archival isolates of M.

Pulmonary tuberculosis treated with directly observed therapy: serial changes in lung structure and function.

Objectives: (1) To correlate structure (CT) with function in pulmonary tuberculosis (TB), and (2) to describe the evolution of structural and functional abnormalities when pulmonary TB is treated with directly observed therapy.

Subjects And Methods: Twenty-five patients with drug-susceptible pulmonary TB, 15 cavitary and 10 noncavitary, were studied prospectively. Conventional CT and pulmonary function testing (spirometry, diffusing capacity, and arterial blood gases) were performed at baseline, and after 1 and 6 months of directly observed therapy.

Pulmonary illness associated with exposure to Mycobacterium-avium complex in hot tub water. Hypersensitivity pneumonitis or infection?

Background: Mycobacterium avium complex is common in water. When aerosolized, it is frequently inhaled but rarely causes illness in healthy people. Hypersensitivity pneumonitis to inhaled aerosols has been described; these aerosols are from several sources of water.

Disseminated tuberculosis with and without a miliary pattern on chest radiograph: a clinical-pathologic-radiologic correlation.

Setting: Province of Manitoba, Canada.

Objective: To describe the characteristics of disseminated tuberculosis (TBD) with and without a miliary pattern on chest radiograph, to determine the mortality, and to identify the demographic and clinical features associated with survival.

Design: A retrospective case review.

Two-step tuberculin testing in staff and residents of a nursing home.

This study examined the prevalence and determinants of tuberculin reactors and the booster response in 272 (97%) residents and 218 (69%) staff of an urban nursing home where a case of miliary TB was being investigated. Many subjects were foreign born (56%), and 15% had a history of BCG vaccination (34% of staff). Testing was done with 5 TU PPD-S (Connaught).

Antituberculous drug resistance in Manitoba from 1980 to 1989.

Objectives: To estimate the magnitude of antituberculous drug resistance and identify the risk factors for its development in tuberculosis patients in Manitoba over a 10-year period. As well, to examine the clinical course of the patients whose initial or subsequent isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis were resistant to one or more drugs.

Design: Comparison of drug-resistant and non-drug-resistant cases of tuberculosis.

A statistical chronicle of tuberculosis in Canada: Part II. Risk today and control.

This report marks over 50 years of publication by Statistics Canada of annual reports on Tuberculosis Statistics. These years have witnessed what has been described as a conquest of tuberculosis in Canada. To quote George Jasper Wherrett in the Miracle of the Empty Beds: One hundred years ago the word consumption (as tuberculosis was then called) struck horror in human hearts.