Abstract

Background: In a developing country like India, tuberculosis (TB) and malnutrition, both the problems are of prime concern. There is an increase in the occurrence of sputum negative TB in regions having high human immunodeficiency virus prevalence. Furthermore, it seems that nutritional status may predict clinical outcome in TB. Aims and Objectives: To determine nutritional status in sputum smear positive and sputum smear-negative cases of pulmonary TB (PTB). Methods and Materials: A total of 54 male patients, diagnosed with PTB by an expert physician, based on sputum smear microscopy and radiography were recruited for study. They were divided into sputum smear- positive pulmonary tuberculosis (SPPT) and sputum smear-negative pulmonary tuberculosis (SNPT) group. Age, medical history (cough, fever, anorexia, weight loss, and hemoptysis), weight, height, body mass index, hemoglobin, and serum protein were recorded and compared in both groups.
Results: About 62.96% of patients were smear positive and 37.03% were smear negative. Cough, fever, anorexia, and weight loss were more common in SPPT patients than in SNPT group, but it was not statistically significant except cough (P < 0.05). Nearly, 38% of SPPT patients were severely underweight and almost 30% of SNPT were severely underweight.
Conclusions: It appears that undernutrition among SPPT and SNPT patients of PTB is a result of preexisting chronic undernutrition as well as concurrent active infection, which increases the severity of weight loss. As a result, nutritional support is of prime importance for the patient and must be given during treatment phase.