Association of Diabetes Mellitus with Presentation and Treatment Outcomes among Adult Patients with Pulmonary...

This prospective study was done to compare the initial presentation and treatment outcomes of tuberculosis among adult patients who have diabetes mellitus with those without diabetes mellitus. In this study, all adult patients (age 18 years old or older) with microbiologically confirmed drug-sensitive pulmonary tuberculosis who were put on treatment in Ballabgarh block in Haryana were enrolled. Information on clinical, radiological, and microbiological parameters at baseline was obtained by interview or record review. Symptom score was calculated by assigning one point for each symptom from zero to seven. Patients were followed for 6 months from the start of treatment to assess treatment outcomes. Data were analyzed using the χ2 or Fisher exact test. Logistic regression was used to assess the factors associated with death or unfavorable outcomes. In total, 412 patients were included in the study, of which 17.5% had diabetes mellitus. The mean symptom scores among those with and without diabetes were 3.7 (SD 1.3) and 3.6 (SD 1.4), respectively. Treatment success was achieved in 83.6% of patients with diabetes and 86.4% of patients without diabetes. Death was observed in 12.3% of patients with diabetes compared with 7.1% of patients without diabetes. There was no significant difference in clinical presentation, radiology, or sputum smear grade at baseline between patients with or without diabetes. Although treatment success rate was less and death rate was higher in patients with tuberculosis who had diabetes compared with those who did not have diabetes, the difference was not statistically significant.