Golshah Roghieh, Golshah Elham, Rezaie Shirazi Rahim, Golshah Hamid, Mojaver Aida.
Diabetes mellitus and pulmonary tuberculosis, association or co-incidence?.
Pak J Med Sci Jan ;27(4):819-22.

Objectives: To evaluate the effect of Diabetes Mellitus (DM) on clinical and diagnostic methods and radiological features of pulmonary TB, in comparison to non diabetic pulmonary TB patients, in Golestan province, Northeast of Iran. Methodology: In this retrospective cross-sectional study during 2004-2008, medical records of patients with definite diagnosis of pulmonary TB were reviewed. Demographic data, clinical & diagnostic method and radiological findings were studied. Radiological data and lung High Resolution computed tomographic scan (lung HRCT) were done by two different radiologists. After data entry into SPSS-16, Fischer’s exact test and chi-square test were used to compare the two groups (TB with DM & without it). P-value <0.05 was considered significant. Results: Among 200 patients with pulmonary TB, 80 (40%) had TB and concurrent DM (PTDM group). The mean age of two groups was not significantly different. Coincidental TB and DM were seen significantly more in female (P-value< 0.01). There was a significant difference between the two groups as regards fever, dyspnea, weight loss and hemoptysis. Positive sputum smear was the most frequent diagnostic method in both groups (PT, PTDM), no significant difference was shown (P-value > 0.05). Multilobar cavities were significantly more reported in diabetics (p- value = 0.014). No statistical differences were seen between two groups radiologically. Conclusion: Tuberculosis could be more invasive in diabetic patients especially females hence they should be given more attention.

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