Abstract: Objective To explore the clinical value of endotoxin and C-reactive protein (CRP) on tuberculosis (TB) patients with gram negative bacteria. Methods Two hundred and fourty TB inpatients were analyzed by retrospective investigation. According to the results of sputum culture and hemoculture, the patients were divided into gram-negative bacterium group, gram-positive bacterium group and culture-negative group. The concentrations of endotoxin and the levels of CRP in plasma from these patients were analyzed. Results The concentrations of endotoxin (317.34 pg/ml) and the levels of CRP (65.43 mg/L) in gram-negative bacterium group were significantly higher than that in gram-positive bacterium group (34.78 pg/ml, 35.33 mg/L) (Z=－1.793, Z=－1.106, P<0.05), and those in gram-negative bacterium group were significantly higher than that in culture-negative group (20.06 pg/ml, 15.34 mg/L) (Z=－2.397, Z=－1.950, P<0.01); There was correlation between endotoxin and CRP in gram-negative bacterium group (r=0.458, P<0.05). Conclusion The detection of endotoxin and CRP in TB patients will help to rapidly indentify gram-negative bacterium infection, improving the accuracy of clinical diagnosis and making reasonable prescription.

Key words: Tuberculosis, pulmonary/complications, Gram-negative bacterial infections, Endotoxins, C-Reactive protein