Assessment of Hematological Parameters in Tuberculosis Patients: An Analytical Study

Abstract

Background: Despite that hematological abnormalities are commonly seen in patients with tuberculosis, little is known about their importance as prognostic markers in drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) cases. Objective: To find out the relationship between tuberculosis and hematological parameters among these patients. Methodology: This was a prospective case-control study conducted at CMH and Fatimah Jinnah General and Chest Hospital, Quetta from January 2019 to July 2021.  A total of in this study, 278 consenting adults were particular, comprising 50 healthy individuals and 114 patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) and 114 with drug-susceptible tuberculosis (DS-TB). A systematic questionnaire was used to collect demographic data. Five milliliters (5 mL) of blood were drawn and placed in EDTA containers. The Mindary-BG5380 5-part automated system and the impedance approach were used to analyze hematological parameters. Data was analyzed using IBM Statistics SPSS version 27. Result: The mean hemoglobin levels were significantly lower in DR-TB patients (11.33±2.14 g/dL) than in DS-TB patients (12.47±2.99 g/dL) and the healthy group (13.97±2.99 g/dL) with a mean difference of -15.11±8.12 g/dL. The mean MCH and MCHC levels were also slightly lower in DR-TB patients (27.1±2.91 pg and 29.89±2.11 g/dL, respectively), The WBC count in the three groups shows a statistically strong significant association at a P-value < 0.001. Conclusion: The increased inflammation commonly associated with drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) may be the cause of the decreased mean haemoglobin levels seen in these individuals when compared to drug-susceptible tuberculosis (DS-TB) patients.  Comparable white blood cell counts between the two groups suggest that both DR-TB and DS-TB patients' immune systems responded similarly to the infection.