International Journal of Contemporary Medicine
  • Year: 2015
  • Volume: 3
  • Issue: 1

A Study of Pulmonary Tuberculosis in Patients with Bronchial Asthma

1Assistant Professor, Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Bangalore Medical College & Research Institute, Bangalore

2Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology, Shridevi Institute of Medical Sciences & Research Hospital, Tumkur

*Corresponding author: Basavaraju TJ, Assistant Professor, Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Bangalore Medical College & Research Institute, Bangalore. Email: drbasutj@gmail.com

Online published on 31 January, 2015.

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to evaluate the incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis in bronchial asthmatic patients with respect to age, sex, duration of bronchial asthma and steroid therapy.

This retrospective record based study was conducted to evaluate the incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis in patients with bronchial asthma in a tertiary care hospital from Dec 2012 to Sep 2010. The study included detailed history and clinical examination to diagnose bronchial asthma. The diagnosis of tuberculosis was made through history, clinical examination and laboratory diagnosis. The study excluded other complications of bronchial asthma like pneumothorax and those patients who had past history of pulmonary tuberculosis. The data was then compiled and analyzed accordingly.

A total of 100 cases were evaluated during this period. On analysing the age and incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis,12(12%) patients who developed pulmonary tuberculosis were between the age group of 31–70 years. Among 100 patients enrolled for the study 60 patients were males, out of them 8 patients (8%) developed pulmonary tuberculosis. 40 patients were females, out of them 4 patients (4%) developed pulmonary tuberculosis. Out of the 100 subjects from the study, 60 of them were onboth systemicand inhalational steroids and 40 of themwere only on inhalational steroids. Incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis was 10 outof 60 patients treated with the combination of systemic and inhalational steroid treated asthmatics. Whereas, only 2 out of 40 asthmatic patients on inhalational steroids onlydeveloped pulmonary tuberculosis.

In the present study it was concluded that age and gender were not a major factor for the development of pulmonary tuberculosis. A positive correlation between the duration of the bronchial asthma and tuberculosis was observed. Incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis is more common in asthmatic patients on combination of systemic and inhalational steroids than inhalational steroids only.

Keywords

Pulmonary Tuberculosis, Bronchial Asthma, Corticosteroids, Inhalational Steroids