title: Influence of diabetes on manifestations and treatment outcome of pulmonary TB patients.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Tuberculosis and Chest Diseases, Lala Ram Sarup Institute of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases, Sri Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi, India. drrupaksingla@yahoo.com
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Singla
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Al-Sharif
authors.forename: M O
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Ai-Sayegh
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Shaikh
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Osman
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: D000995:Antitubercular Agents