Faryal Mehmood, Iram Shakir Kiani, Arshad Iqbal Satti.
Latent tuberculosis amongst patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.
Ann Pak Inst Med Sci Jan ;4(1):56-8.

Background: Tuberculosis is known to be an endemic infection in Pakistan. Diabetes Mellitus is a growing epidemic in Pakistan. Diabetics are more prone to develop tuberculosis. WHO recommends screening for latent tuberculosis in diabetics. Study Design: Descriptive study. Objective: to assess the frequency of latent TB among diabetics and to suggest if diabetics should be screened for latent diabetes Materials and Methods: We determined the prevalence of latent tuberculosis among diabetics in Pakistan. We recruited 415 diabetics, who were regular patients of diabetes clinic in District Headquarter Hospital, from November 2005 till August 2006. We did the Montoux test in all diabetics, and interpreted it as positive if the diameter of induration was more than 10 mm after 72 hours, as recommended by WHO and ATS. Also patients who were known to have HIV, any recent contact with active TB , having fibrotic changes on CXR ,having Advanced organ failure ( cardiac , renal , hepatic ) or hematological malignancy or organ transplant or immunosuppressive therapy or IVDA were excluded from the study Results: We found 55% percent diabetics to have latent tuberculosis. Conclusion: We strongly recommend screening diabetics for latent TB so as to prevent TB in this immunocompromised population.

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