Umairul Islam, Akhter Baig, Nayyerul Islam, Mujahid Humail.
Hypocalcemia: a universal phenomenon seen in both soft tissue and bony tuberculosis.
J Pak Orthop Assoc Jan ;20(1):76-80.

Objective: To find out the phenomenon of hypocalcaemia, if only restricted to the patients of musculoskeletal system, or also seen in soft tissue tuberculosis. Study Design: A prospective and case-control study. Place and Duration of Study: The study was multi-centric conducted in the departments of Orthopaedic surgery III and Surgery Unit IV of Dow Medical College, Karachi, from March 2005 to December 2007. Patients and Methods: The study was conducted on 40 patients of proved tuberculosis. The study was based upon the comparison of serum calcium of proved tuberculous patients with their controls. For the collection of serum calcium, the blood sample collection was done without applying tourniquet. Patients were labeled tuberculous, if they were sputum positive, or their biopsy showed typical tuberculous granuloma or bacteriological examination showed the tuberculous bacteria. Results: Out of 40 patients, 28 were female and 12 male. Minimum age was 4 and maximum 70 years. Mean age was 33.65 with standard deviation = was15.25. Majority of patients belonged to 2nd and 3rd decade of life in this study. We were able to find a nutritional factor, low serum calcium associated with tuberculosis. Serum level of calcium varied from 6.0 to 9.0 mg/dl with mean of 7.66 and standard deviation = was 0.74. P-value for chi-square test and t-test was highly significant (>.001) and odds ratio of 21, considering the confidence level of 95%. Majority of our cases had tuberculosis of soft tissue 33 (82.5%). Conclusion: We conclude that low serum calciums of highly significant value, seen in our patients of tuberculosis of bone and soft tissue origin.

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