Evaluation of effectiveness of pathology reports in active surveillance of tuberculosis

Despite advancing technology, national TB surveillance systems are still inadequate in terms of patient detection around the world. It was aimed to investigate suspicious cases detected by active surveillance method in pathology laboratories and to evaluate the effectiveness of this method in terms of finding new TB cases.

This is a descriptive cross-sectional study. It was administrated in Samsun, Turkey, between January 2012-December 2017. Within the scope of active surveillance, pathology laboratories were regularly visited and reported cases with granulomatous inflammation were assessed. The obtained patient list was compared with the records of the Electronic Tuberculosis Management System (ETMS). Patients who were not included in these records were invited to the dispensary and evaluated for TB. They were also referred to the relevant hospitals for diagnosis if necessary. Frequency values and descriptive statistics were calculated using SPSS method.

It was found that 35.6% of 703 patients with the diagnosis of granulomatous inflammation were previously diagnosed, treated or currently undergoing treatment in the ETMS registry. As a result of the assessment of remaining 453 cases, 46 patients (10.1%) were newly diagnosed with TB. Newly diagnosed TB patients were reported, and their treatment started.

As a result, active surveillance method conducted in pathology laboratories are used to detect unknown or late reported TB cases and allows to start treatment without further delay.