Denkinger, Claudia

University Hospital Heidelberg

Department of Infectious Diseases

Section Clinical Tropical Medicine

Im Neuenheimer Feld 324

69120 Heidelberg, Germany

Phone: 0049-6221-56 36637

Email: claudia.denkinger@med.uni-heidelberg.de

Curriculum Vitae

INTERNAL

Project Specific Informations

Short Summary

This is a prospective, cross-sectional multicentre cohort study in which the accuracy and the diagnostic yield of Tuberculosis-focused point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) and image interpretation with artificial intelligence (AI) will be assessed in inpatients and outpatients with presumed TB disease in German and Indian sites. Dedicated POCUS protocols for the diagnosis of HIV-associated extra-pulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) in high incidence settings have been proposed, but reliable accuracy data for both patients with and without HIV are thus far limited. Another arising ultrasound field with great potential is lung ultrasound (LUS) for the diagnosis and the assessment of disease extent for pulmonary TB. Our study ultrasound protocol will cover both abdominal and thoracic locations in both HIV(+) and HIV(-) patients. In addition, we will follow up patients with confirmed TB under anti-mycobacterial therapy to document the natural evolution of TB-associated sonographic findings and assess their value for monitoring of therapy success. With this study we want to fill this gap and to guide implementation efforts by better characterizing the sensitivity and specificity of sonographic findings for TB diagnosis against a comprehensive reference standard. POCUS has the potential to increase TB case finding and avoid over-diagnosis.

Highlights

• 177 Participants enrolled. On track to meet timelines.Funding applied for a follow-on project in children with NIH R01 (decision pending). Integration with other large TB networks grants (R2D2, SMART4Tb)