Influence of diabetes on manifestations and treatment outcome of pulmonary TB patients.
OBJECTIVE
To understand the influence of diabetes on the clinical and bacteriological aspects and treatment outcome of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) patients.


METHODS
Records of 692 consecutive smear-positive PTB patients admitted to a referral hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, were reviewed retrospectively. The characteristics of 187 patients with diabetes mellitus (PTB-DM group) were compared to 505 patients without DM (PTB group).


RESULTS
In the PTB-DM group, 65.2% of the patients had numerous acid-fast bacilli (AFB) on sputum smear examination compared to 54.1% in the control group (P = 0.008). Among new cases, PTB-DM patients had a lower prevalence of resistance to any anti-tuberculosis drug (6.4% vs. 16.0%, P = 0.007) and achieved higher sputum conversion rates at the end of 3 months of treatment (98.9% vs. 94.7%, P = 0.013). Favourable outcomes (cured/treatment completed), failure, death and default were comparable in both groups (P = 0.7005).


CONCLUSIONS
PTB-DM patients have a higher pre-treatment bacillary load, a lower prevalence of anti-tuberculosis drug resistance and achieve slightly higher sputum conversion by the end of 3 months of treatment compared to non-diabetic patients. The association of diabetes does not alter the final treatment outcome among PTB patients.
Singla
R
R
Department of Tuberculosis and Chest Diseases, Lala Ram Sarup Institute of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases, Sri Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi, India. drrupaksingla@yahoo.com
Khan
N
N
Al-Sharif
N
N
Ai-Sayegh
M O
MO
Shaikh
M A
MA
Osman
M M
MM
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000995:Antitubercular Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D048909:Diabetes Complications; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000187:drug effects / Q000302:isolation & purification; D013183:Sputum / Q000382:microbiology; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014397:Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000382:microbiology
D000995:Antitubercular Agents