Study of clinical and radiological profile of pulmonary tuberculosis among patients having diabetes mellitus

Abstract

Background: Onset of tuberculosis is high among diabetic mellitus patients in relation to non-diabetic patients. Due to weakened immune system there is a greater risk of tuberculosis seen among type 2 diabetes mellitus patients. As a result, affected patients have difficulty in responding to any kind of treatment when compared to healthy individuals. The objective was to study the clinical and radiological profile of pulmonary tuberculosis among patients having diabetes mellitus (DM).Methods: The study was conducted at the department of pulmonary medicine, in a tertiary health care centre in Eastern India. The study included smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) patients with diabetes mellitus and the patients who were smear positive for pulmonary tuberculosis (control group) who met the criteria to participate in the study after a thorough examination. Informed written consent was obtained from all patients before enrolment.Results: A total of 80 patients (15 to 65 years and above) were enrolled in the study with equal numbers being diagnosed with diabetes who had elevated blood sugar values (refer to Table 1). Classical clinical signs were totally correlated with radiography and 57.5% cases showed pulmonary lesions. Among the radiological findings, infiltration was most common in both groups, but more significant in PTB DM group (75 %) followed by cavity (52.5%) in PTB DM group.Conclusions: It can be concluded from the study that in diabetic patients the pattern of pulmonary tuberculosis was significantly different from non-diabetic patients. Pre-treatment bacillary load was high in diabetic patients with pulmonary tuberculosis.