Diabetes Is Associated with Worse Clinical Presentation in Tuberculosis Patients from Brazil: A Retrospective Cohort Study
Authors
Gil-Santana, LeonardoAlmeida-Junior, Jilson L.
Oliveira, Carolina A.M.
Hickson, Lucas S.
Daltro, Carla
Castro, Simone
Kornfeld, Hardy
Netto, Eduardo M.
Andrade, Bruno B.
UMass Chan Affiliations
Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care MedicineDocument Type
Journal ArticlePublication Date
2016-01-11Keywords
Bacterial Infections and MycosesEndocrine System Diseases
Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism
International Public Health
Pulmonology
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BACKGROUND: The rising prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM) worldwide, especially in developing countries, and the persistence of tuberculosis (TB) as a major public health issue in these same regions, emphasize the importance of investigating this association. Here, we compared the clinical profile and disease outcomes of TB patients with or without coincident DM in a TB reference center in Brazil. METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of a TB patient cohort (treatment naive) of 408 individuals recruited at a TB primary care center in Brazil between 2004 and 2010. Data on diagnosis of TB and DM were used to define the groups. The study groups were compared with regard to TB disease presentation at diagnosis as well as to clinical outcomes such as cure and mortality rates upon anti-tuberculosis therapy (ATT) initiation. A composite score utilizing clinical, radiological and microbiological parameters was used to compare TB severity between the groups. RESULTS: DM patients were older than non-diabetic TB patients. In addition, diabetic individuals more frequently presented with cough, night sweats, hemoptysis and malaise than those without DM. The overall pattern of lung lesions assessed by chest radiographic examination was similar between the groups. Compared to non-diabetic patients, those with TB-diabetes exhibited positive acid-fast bacilli in sputum samples more frequently at diagnosis and at 30 days after ATT initiation. Notably, higher values of the TB severity score were significantly associated with TB-diabetes comorbidity after adjustment for confounding factors. Moreover, during ATT, diabetic patients required more frequent transfers to TB reference hospitals for complex clinical management. Nevertheless, overall mortality and cure rates were indistinguishable between the study groups. CONCLUSIONS: These findings reinforce the idea that diabetes negatively impacts pulmonary TB severity. Our study argues for the systematic screening for DM in TB reference centers in endemic areas.Source
PLoS One. 2016 Jan 11;11(1):e0146876. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0146876. eCollection 2016.. Link to article on publisher's siteDOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0146876Permanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/39968PubMed ID
26752596Related Resources
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Copyright: © 2016 Gil-Santana et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Distribution License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1371/journal.pone.0146876
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Copyright: © 2016 Gil-Santana et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.</p>