Prevalence of hypoalbuminemia among tuberculosis patients receiving anti tuberculosis therapy: A cross sectional study

Abstract

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the most common disease seen in overcrowding population. The high prevalence of tuberculosis in developing countries is due to various factors like poverty, malnutrition, overcrowding and poor socioeconomic status. It is having also been recorded that malnutrition is one of the major causes for the incidence of this disease in healthy individuals. Malnutrition can lead to poor prognosis of the Anti-tuberculosis therapy (ATT). Hence, Prevalence of hypoalbuminemia is of major concern in determining the prognosis of the disease.Objective: To estimate the serum total protein, albumin and globulin of patients with TB and compare albumin levels with Pulmonary Tuberculosis (PTB) patients and Extra Pulmonary Tuberculosis (EPTB) patients. Also, to correlate albumin levels with Body Mass Index (BMI) and Waist Hip Ratio (WHR) of the patients.Method: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 100 patients in two groups namely PTB and EPTB. The albumin levels were noted along with the BMI and WHR of the patients in both groups of TB. Results: The average age of the patients was 38.9 years. There was 65% of patients with PTB and 35% of patients with EPTB. The mean albumin, BMI and WHR of the patients were 3.2 ± 0.6, 19.7 ± 3.7 and 0.96 ± 0.01 respectively. The albumin levels of PTB group was 3.1 ± 0.6 and EPTB was 3.4 ± 0.6. the WHR of PTB patients was 0.99 ± 0.12 and EPTB was 0.90 ± 0.15. Albumin and WHR showed statistical significance with p value 0.007 and 0.003 respectively.Conclusion: Hypoalbuminemia in TB patients correlated with the BMI and with WHR. Sputum positivity was independent of the albumin levels. The results highlighted the prevalence of low albumin levels and malnutrition in patients with TB, especially PTB.