Erythrocyte sedimentation rate at diagnosis in culture positive cases of active tuberculosis

Objective: to evluate the erythocyte sedimentation rate (esr) at the time of diagnosis in culture positive cases of different types of active tuberculosis (tb). methodology: in this retrospective descriptive study conducted at king abdulaziz medical city, riyadh, saudi arabia, esr was done by a modified westergren method using a rapid test. cases of active tb (defined as a case of tb up to two weeks from the start of anti-tuberculous treatment), were evaluated for esr at the time of diagnosis. results: of 246 cases of culture positive tb, esr results during active phase were available in 195 (79.3%) patients. number (%) of patients with pulmonary, extra-pulmonary and disseminated tb were 69 (35%), 78 (40%) and 49 (25%) respectively. two (1%) of these patients were hiv positive. esr was elevated in 169 (87%) and was normal in 26 (13%) patients. mean esr in all patients was 67.6 mm/hr with no statistical difference between patients with different tb types. esr between 1-30, 31-60, 61-90, 91-120 and 121-150 mm/hr represented 19%, 23%, 23%, 19% and 6% of the cases respectively, whereas 44 (22.6%) of the patients had esr more than 100 mm/hr. conclusion: in hiv negative patients with suggestive features of tb but without any other underlying disease affecting the esr, the baseline esr may be a valuable diagnostic test to suspect tb in resource poor countries.