[The relation between nutritional state of tuberculous patients admitted in tuberculous ward and their outcome at the time of discharge].
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the relation between nutritional state of tuberculous patients admitted in tuberculous ward and their outcome at the time of discharge.


METHODS
We retrospectively investigated BMI, peripheral blood lymphocyte count, serum albumin concentration, and induration size of PPD skin test at the time of admission from their clinical charts of all 174 tuberculous patients newly admitted in NHO Omuta National Hospital during the period from 2000 to 2002, and based on these indices, the nutritional state of tuberculous patients was divided into severely impaired, moderately impaired, and mildly impaired or normal. The relation between nutritional state on admission and the outcome at the time of discharge was examined.


RESULTS
The worse the nutritional state on admission, the higher the rate of death from all causes and tuberculosis, and the higher the average age and the duration of hospitalization.


CONCLUSIONS
The assessment method of nutritional state reported in our study is easily applicable to every tuberculous patients admitted in tuberculous ward, and the outcome of tuberculous patients at the time of discharge could be expected, based on the nutritional state assessed with this method. Prospective study is needed to ascertain the validity of results obtained in the present study.
Department of Respiratory Medicine, National Hospital Organization Omuta National Hospital, 1044-1, Tachibana, Omuta-shi, Fukuoka 837-0911, Japan. nagatan@oomuta.hosp.go.jp
Nobuhiko
N
Nagata
Kazuko
K
Matsunaga
Kentaro
K
Wakamatsu
Akira
A
Kajiki
Yoshinari
Y
Kitahara
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D009752:Nutritional Status; D010351:Patient Discharge; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000401:mortality* / Q000503:physiopathology