Dataset Information

Evaluation of underweight status may improve identification of the highest-risk patients during outpatient evaluation for pulmonary tuberculosis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

When evaluating symptomatic patients for tuberculosis (TB) without access to same-day diagnostic test results, clinicians often make empiric decisions about starting treatment. The number of TB symptoms and/or underweight status could help identify patients at highest risk for a positive result. We sought to evaluate the usefulness of BMI assessment and a count of characteristic TB symptoms for identifying patients at highest risk for TB.

Methods

We enrolled adult patients receiving pulmonary TB diagnoses and a representative sample with negative TB evaluations at four outpatient health facilities in Kampala, Uganda. We asked patients about symptoms of chronic cough, night sweats, chest pain, fever, hemoptysis, or weight loss; measured height and weight; and collected sputum for mycobacterial culture. We evaluated the diagnostic accuracy (for culture-positive TB) of two simple scoring systems: (a) number of TB symptoms, and (b) number of TB symptoms plus one or more additional points for underweight status (body mass index [BMI] ? 18.5 kg/m2).

Results

We included 121 patients with culture-positive TB and 370 patients with negative culture results (44 of whom had been recommended for TB treatment by evaluating clinicians). Of the six symptoms assessed, the median number of symptoms that patients reported was two (interquartile range [IQR]: 1, 3). The median BMI was 20.9 kg/m2 (IQR: 18.6, 24.0), and 118 (24%) patients were underweight. Counting the number of symptoms provided an area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve (c-statistic) of 0.77 (95% confidence interval, CI: 0.72, 0.81) for identifying culture-positive TB; adding two points for underweight status increased the c-statistic to 0.81 (95%CI: 0.76, 0.85). A cutoff of ?3 symptoms had sensitivity and specificity of 65% and 74%, whereas a score of ?4 on the combined score (?2 symptoms if underweight, ?4 symptoms if not underweight) gave higher sensitivity and specificity of 69% and 81% respectively. A sensitivity analysis defining TB by Xpert MTB/RIF status produced similar results.

Conclusion

A count of patients' TB symptoms may be useful in clinical decision-making about TB diagnosis. Consideration of underweight status adds additional diagnostic value.

SUBMITTER: Kitonsa PJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7732099 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Evaluation of underweight status may improve identification of the highest-risk patients during outpatient evaluation for pulmonary tuberculosis.

Kitonsa Peter J PJ Nalutaaya Annet A Mukiibi James J Nakasolya Olga O Isooba David D Kamoga Caleb C Baik Yeonsoo Y Robsky Katherine K Dowdy David W DW Katamba Achilles A Kendall Emily A EA

PloS one 20201211 12

<h4>Background</h4>When evaluating symptomatic patients for tuberculosis (TB) without access to same-day diagnostic test results, clinicians often make empiric decisions about starting treatment. The number of TB symptoms and/or underweight status could help identify patients at highest risk for a positive result. We sought to evaluate the usefulness of BMI assessment and a count of characteristic TB symptoms for identifying patients at highest risk for TB.<h4>Methods</h4>We enrolled adult patie ...[more]

PMID: 33306710

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Project description:BackgroundIn-hospital dermatological care has shifted from dedicated dermatology wards to consultation services, and some consulted patients may require postdischarge follow-up in outpatient dermatology. Safe and timely care transitions from inpatient-to-outpatient specialty care are critical for patient health, but communication around these transitions can be disjointed, and workflows can be complex.ObjectiveIn this 3-phase quality improvement effort, we developed and evaluated an intervention that leveraged an electronic health record (EHR) feature, known as SmartPhrase, to enable a new workflow to improve transitions from inpatient care to outpatient dermatology.MethodsPhase 1 (February-March 2021) included interviews with patients and process mapping with key stakeholders to identify gaps and inform an intervention: a SmartPhrase table and associated workflow to promote collection of patient information needed for scheduling follow-up and closed-loop communication between dermatology and scheduling teams. In phase 2 (April-May 2021), semistructured interviews-with dermatologists (n=5), dermatology residents (n=5), and schedulers (n=6)-identified pain points and refinements. In phase 3, the intervention was evaluated by triangulating data from these interviews with measured changes in scheduling efficiency, visit completion, and messaging volume preimplementation (January-February 2021) and postimplementation (April-May 2021).ResultsPreintervention pain points included unclear workflow for care transitions, limited patient input in follow-up planning, multiple messaging channels (eg, EHR based, email, and phone messages), and time-inefficient patient tracking. The intervention addressed most pain points; interviewees reported the intervention was easy to adopt and improved scheduling efficiency, workload, and patient involvement. More visits were completed within the desired timeframe of 14 days after discharge during the postimplementation period (21/47, 45%) than the preimplementation period (28/41, 68%; P=.03). The messaging workload also decreased from 88 scheduling-related messages sent for 25 patients before implementation to 30 messages for 8 patients after implementation.ConclusionsInpatient-to-outpatient specialty care transitions are complex and involve multiple stakeholders, thus requiring multifaceted solutions. With deliberate evaluation, broad stakeholder input, and iteration, we designed and implemented a successful solution using a standard EHR feature, SmartPhrase, integrated into a standardized workflow to improve the timeliness of posthospital specialty care and reduce workload.

Dataset Information

Evaluation of underweight status may improve identification of the highest-risk patients during outpatient evaluation for pulmonary tuberculosis.

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Publications

Evaluation of underweight status may improve identification of the highest-risk patients during outpatient evaluation for pulmonary tuberculosis.

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