Association of Tuberculosis and Biochemical Nutritional Status A Case-Control Study
Abstract
Pulmonary tuberculosis is a very infectious disease and is a public health problem specially in developing country like India. Association between tuberculosis and nutritional status is assumed by various authors at time to time. So this present study was aimed to where there is any association between tuberculosis and nutritional status of individual. For study purpose 40 newly diagnosed tuberculosis taken in one group (Group A), 30 cases of relapse cases of tuberculosis in group 'B' and 30 matched healthy controls in group 'C'. Protein and micronutrient levels of each of the subject were assessed and compared group wisely. Significance of difference was inferred by Unparied 't' Test. It was found in this study that Protein, Albumin, Alkaline Phosphatase and Vitamine D were significantly lowered in Tubercular cases than controls. So it can be concluded that tuberculosis is more common in nutritionally deficit individuals.
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Introduction
Tuberculosis is a very infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium Tuberculosis. One third of word population is infected with tuberculosis and there is addition of 1% every year,1 making tuberculosis a global health issue. Tuberculosis (TB) is associated with poverty, overcrowding, alcoholism stress, drug addiction and malnutrition that are prevalent in developing world. 2 India is the highest TB burden country having 2.2 million cases from 8.7 million cases throughout the world. 2 Although causative agent of tuberculosis is Mycobacterium Tuberculosis but nutrition has strong association with this diseases. On one hand malnourished are more vulnerable to tuberculosis and tuberculosis further causes nutritional deficiencies by decreasing appetite and increasing catabolism.3 So malnutrition and tuberculosis are synergistically associated with each other. Among various methods of nutritional assessment, biochemical assessment is one to estimate the level of protein and micro and macronutrients. Since tuberculosis infection is associated with compramized cell mediated immunity so Calcium (Ca) and Phosphorus (P) status provide additional information for effective management of tuberculosis as these macronutrients have important role in immune system.4,5 So this present study was conducted to find out difference in nutritional status of tuberculosis cases by biochemical assessment is one to estimate the level of protein and micro and macronutrients.
Conclusion
It can be concluded from this study that Protein, Albumin, Alkaline Phosphatase and Vitamine D were found significantly less in newly diagnosed tubercular cases than controls. So it can be concluded that tuberculosis is more common in nutritionally deficit individuals.