BACKGROUND:

The research provided urgently needed information regarding incidence, risk factors, natural history, molecular epidemiology, treatment, and prevention of tuberculosis in an especially vulnerable multi-ethnic inner-city population with a high HIV seropositivity rate.

The study was part of a collaborative project on minority health, The Epidemiology, Drug Resistance, and Therapy of Tuberculosis in a Multi-Ethnic Inner City Population with a High HIV Seropositivity Rate. The 1993 Report of the Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives, encouraged the NHLBI to establish minority centers to facilitate the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases. The concept for the initiative was developed by the NHLBI staff and approved by the September 1992 National Heart, Lung, and Blood Advisory Council. The Request for Applications was released in October 1992.

DESIGN NARRATIVE:

The study was conducted prospectively and retrospectively in three groups of patients: intravenous drug users and their sexual contacts in an already-recruited cohort; children who received their primary care at Bellevue Hospital Medical Center; and Bellevue Hospital Center inpatients with TB and outpatients who underwent prophylactic treatment. In addition to environmental risk factors (e.g., hopelessness, cohabitation with tuberculosis patients and injected drug use), host factors were investigated, including: HIV infection; immune status among HIV- seropositive persons, as indicated by quantitative p24 antibodies; CD4, CD8, and gammadelta T cell counts; and race, age, and nutritional status. Incidence and risk-factors in the cohort were assessed by interview, blood draw, PPD screening, medical record review, and anergy panel. Natural history and impact on HIV disease in adult and pediatric populations were assessed by interviews, clinical screening and laboratory measures. Drug sensitivity testing and RFLP typing of specimens from the two populations were conducted, respectively, at the Bellevue Mycobacteriology Lab and the Public Health Research Institute. Factors affecting treatment compliance were assessed by self-administered questionnaire.