Extrapulmonary tuberculosis: A study comparing diabetic and nondiabetic patients

Purpose: The previous studies of extrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) have not focused on the impacts of diabetes mellitus. We conducted a retrospective study to explore the diff erence between EPTB patients with and without diabetes. Methods: The EPTB patients receiving initial treatments from Taipei Medical University Hospital between January 2003 and March 2008 were recruited. They were divided into with-diabetes (WD) group or non-diabetes (ND) group according to coexistence of diabetes mellitus or not, respectively. All characteristics of these two groups were compared. Results: Seventy-fi ve patients were enrolled into our study. Fifteen patients and 60 patients were recruited into WD and ND groups, respectively. The basic characteristics and tuberculosis sites of the two groups were compared. The prevalence of hypertension (66.7 % vs. 38.3 % , p= 0.048) and chronic liver diseases (33.3 % vs. 3.3 %, p=0.003) in WD group were higher than in ND group. The incidence of tuberculous peritonitis in WD group was higher than in ND group (26.7 % vs. 6.7 % , p=0.046). The odds ratio of tuberculous peritonitis for WD group was 5 091 (95 % CI 1.103 - 23.493, p=0.037). The random glucose level (10.9±5.8 vs. 6.8±1.6 mmol/L, p=0.025), the fasting glucose level (8.6±4.4 vs. 5.6±0.9 mmol/L, p=0.038), and the hemoglobin A1c level (7.4±1.1 vs. 5.6±0.4 % , p=0.037) were higher in WD group than in ND group. The total bilirubin level was higher in WD group than in ND group (18.4±6.2 vs. 13±7.2 μmol/L, p=0.042). Presenting symptoms and other laboratory data were not diff erent statistically between these two groups. Conclusions: This is the fi rst study about the impacts of diabetes on EPTB. The prevalence of hypertension and chronic liver diseases, the incidence of tuberculous peritonitis, and the total bilirubin level were higher in EPTB patients with diabetes than those without diabetes.