Clinical profile of pulmonary tuberculosis patients in Oman from 2010 to 2014:A tertiary care hospital perspective

Abstract

BackgroundDespite the efforts taken to improve the screening and treatment programs, Tuberculosis (TB) affects many people around the world. This descriptive retrospective study was conducted to explore the clinical profile of patients diagnosed with Pulmonary TB at a tertiary care hospital, Sultanate of Oman, during the period between 2010 and 2014. Methods.This is a cross-sectional study conducted in a tertiary care hospital in Sultanate of Oman during the period between 2010 and 2014. Clinical profile of pulmonary TB cases was investigated. The collected data included patient nationality, gender, age group, method of diagnosis, presenting symptoms, risk factors for TB and its complications. All data was gathered from electronic medical records. The data was analyzed by SPSS version 23. The study was ethically approved by the Ethical committee at the institute. ResultsOur study covered 239 patients with pulmonary and extra pulmonary TB. Pulmonary TB constituted 128 patients (54 %) of the total sample. More than half of the included patients were males and more than 70 % were Omanis. The mean age was 42.74±18.2 years. Half of the pulmonary TB patients fall within 25–50 years age range. Diabetes and hypertension were the most common risk factors reported at 24 patients (20 %) of the population each. While smoking was found to be one of the main risk factors to develop pulmonary TB, 23 patients (18 %) of the subject population were smokers and 13 patients (10 %) had a recent history of traveling along with 13 TB patients and 13 patients (10 %) had history of some kind of contact with TB patients. The main symptoms observed were cough in 86 patients (67 %), fever in 74 patients (58 %) associated with weight loss in 58 patients (45 %) and around 14 patients (11 %) were diagnosed incidentally. Out of the studied population, 22 patients were diagnosed with Ziehl–Neelsen (ZN) stain, followed by 25 patients with TB culture alone and 55 patients had both ZN and TB culture together. Pleural effusion and pneumothorax were the major complications experienced by the subject population, 13 (10.2 %) and 8 (6.3 %) patients respectively. However, 18 patients (14.1 %) died from pulmonary TB. ConclusionMost of the patients covered were of young to middle age, ranging between 25 and 50 years and most of them had pulmonary TB. Diabetes, hypertension, and smoking were found to be the main risk factors. The subject patients presented mainly suffered from cough, fever, and weight loss. ZN staining and sputum culture were the main methods of diagnosis. Pleural effusion and pneumothorax were the most common complications of pulmonary TB encountered in the subject population.