C-reactive protein and pulmonary tuberculosis: What correlation with disease severity

Abstract

Introduction: The C - reactive protein (CRP) is a sensitive and specific marker of acute phase of inflammation.Its rate increases particularly in bacterial infections. Aim: To evaluate the correlation of CRP with activity and severity of pulmonary tuberculosis. Patients and methods: Comparative study between two groups of 44 patients treated for pulmonary tuberculosis (31 patients with elevated CRP> 50 mg / l against 13 patients having a CRP Results: There were 44 men. The mean age was 41 yearsin the two groups. Tobacco smoking was more common in the group of patients with elevated CRP. In both groups, clinical features were dominated by decreased general status and cough.Cavitary lung lesions were more frequent in patients with elevated CRP (16 cases vs 3 cases) often with an extensive and bilateral pulmonary involvement (15 cases vs 3 cases).Similarly, positive acid-fast bacilli found in sputum were more frequent in the group of patients with elevated CRP (22 cases vs 6 cases).After excluding patients lost during the treatment, well clinical, bacteriological and radiological evolutions were noted in the term of six months inthe majority of patients with CRP 1month) to bacilli negativation. Conclusion: CRP can be used as a marker of the activity and severity of tuberculosis and can predict the course of the disease.