Study of Haemoglobin Values in Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients at Different Stages of Chemotherapy

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium Tuberculosis (MTB). Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but can also affect other parts of the body. Tuberculosis is a potentially fatal contagious disease that can spread through the lymph nodes and blood stream to any organ in our body. Pulmonary tuberculosis occurs when M. Tuberculosis primarily attacks the lungs. The aim of present study was to establish the haemoglobin value as a guide to the progress, or improvements in the patients undergoing chemotherapy of pulmonary tuberculosis. So far, very few studies have been done on Hb value to observe the progress in tuberculosis patients. The present study was conducted on 100 individuals divided into two groups: Study group and Control group, between October 2013 to May 2014 in the department of Physiology, MIMS, Barabanki (UP). Study group comprised of 50 patients attending Outdoor of TB & Chest primarily presenting with complaints of cough and haemoptysis and also from various untreated sputum positive cases of pulmonary tuberculosis admitted in the ward of department of TB and Chest, MIMS. Control group comprised of 50 normal healthy MBBS students and employees of MIMS. The Mean Hb was highly significant (P<0.0001) at the time of admission and significant (P=0.0015) after 2 months of chemotherapy. It was not significant (P=0.15) after 6 months of therapy indicating that Hb values are reaching the range as in control group (Mean Hb after 6 months of therapy = 13.40 and Mean Hb in control = 13.07. this difference was statistically not significant). Improvement from anaemia was correlated with the treatment of infection.