High resolution imaging and five-year tuberculosis contact outcomes.

Background: The evolution of tuberculosis (TB) disease during the clinical latency period remains incompletely understood.

Methods: 250 HIV-uninfected, adult household contacts of rifampicin-resistant TB with a negative symptom screen underwent baseline F-Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission and computed tomography (PET/CT), repeated in 112 after 5-15 months. Following South African and WHO guidelines, participants did not receive preventive therapy.

A retrospective review of CT pulmonary angiogram confirmed pulmonary emboli in COVID-19 patients admitted to Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town.

Background: A high incidence of thromboembolic phenomena has been widely reported in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia. There is, however, a paucity of data detailing the incidence and characteristics of pulmonary emboli (PE) in COVID-19 patients in the South African setting.

Objectives: To describe the incidence and characteristics of PE confirmed by CT pulmonary angiogram (CTPA) in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia admitted to a tertiary hospital in the Western Cape, South Africa.

Prospective evaluation of host biomarkers other than interferon gamma in QuantiFERON Plus supernatants as candidates for the diagnosis of tuberculosis in symptomatic individuals.

Background: There is an urgent need for new tools for the diagnosis of TB. We evaluated the usefulness recently described host biomarkers in supernatants from the newest generation of the QuantiFERON test (QuantiFERON Plus) as tools for the diagnosis of active TB.

Methods: We recruited individuals presenting at primary health care clinics in Cape Town, South Africa with symptoms requiring investigation for TB disease, prior to the establishment of a clinical diagnosis.

A semi-automatic technique to quantify complex tuberculous lung lesions on F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computerised tomography images.

Background: There is a growing interest in the use of F-FDG PET-CT to monitor tuberculosis (TB) treatment response. However, TB causes complex and widespread pathology, which is challenging to segment and quantify in a reproducible manner. To address this, we developed a technique to standardise uptake (Z-score), segment and quantify tuberculous lung lesions on PET and CT concurrently, in order to track changes over time.