Abstract

Background: Pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) is one of the common illnesses in developing countries which can present with various clinical manifestations. TB can induce hyponatremia via several mechanisms. The prevalence of hypona- tremia is variable in previous studies. Objectives: To study serum sodium levels and prevalence of hyponatremia in PTB patients. Material and Methods: It was a cross-sectional study. Patients of 18 years and above, having active PTB over 2 years were included. Demographic and laboratory data of the patients were recorded and analysed.
Results: A total of 410 patients having PTB of an age ranging from 18 to 80 years; mean of 44.49 ± 13.8 years were taken. About 55.12% were in the age group of 40–60 years and 72.2% were males. Out of 410, 254 (61.95%) had hypon- atremia, i.e., serum sodium < 135 mmol/L in which 182 (71.65%) were males and 72(28.34%) females. Most patients 156 (38.05%) had mild hyponatremia, 72 had moderate and only 26 had severe hyponatremia. Briefly, 132(84%) in the mild hyponatremia category, 48(62.6%) in the moderate and 26(92.3%) in the severe hyponatremia were sputum AFB positive. Patients having extensive lung field lesions had severe hyponatremia (76.9%). Most patients were asymptomatic; only 6 patients with severe hyponatremia were hypotensive and 2 of them required vasopressors.
Conclusions: Hyponatremia was observed to the extent of 61% in patients with PTB, with mild and asymptomatic hyponatremia being more common. Severity of hyponatremia was directly proportional to sputum positivity and extensive involvement of pulmonary parenchymal lesions.