Abstract:
ABSTRACT
Background: Tuberculosis is a communicable disease that is a major cause of morbidity and mortality.
It is one of the top 10 causes of death, and the leading cause of death from a single infectious
agent.Biochemical profiles derangement occurs naturally either during the course of tuberculosis
infection or due to anti-tuberculosis medications.
Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate biochemical profiles and associated risk factors among
pulmonary tuberculosis patients.
Methods: Institutional based comparative cross-sectional study was conducted among tuberculosis
patients andmatched controls at University of Gondar Specialized Hospital and Gondar Health Center
from January to March 2020. Fasting blood sample was collected from 106 pulmonary tuberculosis
patients and 106 matched controls using systematic random sampling technique.Intervieweradministered
questionnaire was used to collectsocio-demographic data. Total cholesterol,triglycerides, aspartate
aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, total protein, total bilirubin, creatinine, urea, and uric
acidwere measured byMindray BS-200E chemistry analyzer. Data analysis was done using SPSS
version 20. Level of significance between groups was analyzed using independent student t-test. A
logistic regression model wasused to identify associated factors. A p-value of ? 0.05 was considered as
statistically significant.
Results: Pulmonary tuberculosis patients had significantly increased levels of uric acid (6.11 � 2.87) (Pvalue =0.009), and total bilirubin(0.80 � 0.27) (P-value<0.001) compared to matched controls [5.32 �
1.12 and 0.54 � 0.08 respectively]. The level of total protein was significantly decreased in pulmonary
tuberculosis cases (6.72 � 0.90)compared with matched controls (7.21 � 0.82) (P-value < 0.001).
Conclusion: There were statistically significant increments in uric acid and total bilirubin levels among
pulmonary tuberculosis patients compared with matched controls. Pulmonary tuberculosis patients had
significantly lower total protein level compared with matched controls. Therefore, pulmonary
tuberculosis patients have to be followed closely for their biochemical profiles to avoid complications.
Keywords:Associated factors, Biochemical profiles, Pulmonarytuberculosis,
