Circulating immunological correlates of speed of sputum conversion in PTB patients of African vs. Eurasian ancestry.

A, t-statistic (regression co-efficient/standard deviation) represents magnitude of difference in immunological parameter between patients with fast vs. slow sputum culture conversion (<37.25 days vs. ≥37.25 days, respectively); a negative t-statistic indicates a lower concentration of immunological parameter in slower converters, and a positive t-statistic indicates a higher concentration of immunological parameter in slower converters. B, p values derived using rank regression with covariates on the interaction term ‘week of sampling*speed of sputum culture conversion’ and adjusting for age, sex, duration of symptoms pre-diagnosis, duration of antimicrobial therapy pre-sampling, isolate sensitive vs. resistant to isoniazid, allocation to vitamin D vs. placebo, week of sampling and subject ID. Parameters with a false discovery rate (q-value)>0.05, determined by the Benjamini Hochberg approach, were designated non-significant (ns). For the purposes of applying this approach, each ‘family’ of hypotheses corresponded to a single column of presented p values. IL, interleukin; IFN, interferon; CXCL, CXC chemokine ligand; CCL, CC chemokine ligand; VEGF, vascular epidermal growth factor; LL-37, cathelicidin LL-37; MMP, matrix metalloproteinase; PG, prostaglandin; DBP, vitamin D binding protein; Hb, haemoglobin; MCV, mean corpuscular volume; PCV, packed cell volume; MCH, mean corpuscular haemoglobin; MCHC, mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration; RBC, red blood cell count; ESR, erythrocyte sedimentation rate; CRP, C-reactive protein.