TRIPOD

The TRIPOD observational study enrolled 490 adults with suspected pulmonary tuberculosis between February 2017 and November 2018. Participants presented with a persistent cough for 2 weeks, a chest x-ray suggestive of tuberculosis, and at least one other tuberculosis-related symptom. Demographic, clinical, and laboratory data were collected at enrollment and during follow-up visits. Most participants (53.1%) had no history of tuberculosis, and most (53.5%) had successful outcomes at the end of standard treatment according to national guidelines. Each participant underwent concurrent sputum testing by acid-fast bacilli smear, GeneXpert MTB/RIF, and Mycobacterium culture. Among the 490 participants, 99 were diagnosed with clinical tuberculosis without bacteriological confirmation and 348 had tuberculosis that was bacteriologically-confirmed by all tests (77.3%), two tests only (15.2%), or one test only (7.5%). Phenotypic drug susceptibility testing was performed on 312 culture isolates, identifying 154 (49.4%) with varying levels of drug resistance.