Tuberculosis: clinical manifestations and outcomes.
A total of 290 HIV/AIDS patients were recruited into this retrospective study, which was carried out at the National Tuberculosis Center (NTBC), Kuala Lumpur. The age range was 18 to 75 years with a mean age of 36.10 (SD +/- 7.44) years. Males outnumbered females by a ratio of 31:1. In this study, the majority of patients were male (96.9%), Malay (47.2%), single (66.9%), unemployed (81%), and smoked (61.4%). The main risk marker identified was injecting drug use (74.5%). The most common clinical manifestations were cough, fever, sputum, lymphadenopathy, and chest infiltrations. More than half of the patients (85.9%) were diagnosed with localized tuberculosis (pulmonary) and the others (14.1%) had extra-pulmonary or disseminated tuberculosis. At the time of this study, the majority of the patients (16.9%) had CD4 cell counts of less than 200 cell/mm3, with a median of 221 cell/mm3. Clinical outcomes demonstrated that among those who survived, 11.0% and 20.7% of the patients had completed treatment either > or = 6 or > or = 9 months, respectively, whereas 54.8% of patients were lost to follow-up, including 0.7% for MDR-TB. Diagnostic criteria for tuberculosis in this study were mainly clinical symptoms/signs and chest x-ray findings (31.0%).
Nissapatorn
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V
Department of Parasitology, University of Malaya Medical Center, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. nissapat@hotmail.com
Kuppusamy
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I
Anuar
A Khairul
AK
Quek
K F
KF
Latt
H M
HM
D017088:AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D018791:CD4 Lymphocyte Count; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008296:Malaysia / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014397:Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D055815:Young Adult