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Updated: Jun 28, 2026

A 3D Human Lung Tissue Model for Functional Studies on Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection
Published on: October 5, 2015
Male-female differences in the risk of tuberculosis in dialysis patients
A I Christopoulos1, A A Diamantopoulos, P A Dimopoulos
1Department of Nephrology of St Andrew"General State Hospital, University Hospital Rio, Patra, Greece. antonchrist2004@yahoo.gr
Aim:
To define any gender-related differences in the prevalence and risk for tuberculosis (TB) in hemodialysis (HD) patients.
Methods:
All active TB cases were recorded during a 36-month follow-up of 272 (193 male and 79 female) HD patients. Entering the study, HD patients were tested with tuberculin and 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene, and a cell-mediated immunity (CMI) index was estimated. Relative risks (RR) for TB were calculated considering subjects from the background general population as a reference group. The independent effect of age, BMI and tuberculin sensitivity was determined using Cox's proportional hazard model.
Results:
Female HD patients presented significantly lower CMI indices and rates of positive Mantoux tests, but higher rates of DM, as compared to males. The male:female ratio in TB for the general and HD patients population was 1.8 and 0.6, respectively. There was a significantly lower TB prevalence in male as compared to female HD patients (7.7% vs. 11.3%), and a subsequent female predominance in risk for TB in those HD patients aged <49 and 50-69 years (M:F adjusted relative risk 0.67 and 0.53) was recorded.
Conclusions:
In contrast to the general population, there is a female predominance among dialysis TB patients younger than 70 years associated with the coexistence of DM. Female gender should always be considered as a risk factor when evaluating diabetic HD patients for active TB.
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