Análise da mortalidade numa unidade hospitalar de tuberculose

ABSTRACTObjective: To analyze the clinical and epidemiological characteristics associated with morta-lity following the in-hospital diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB).Design: Descriptive study.Setting: Tuberculosis Unit (Pulido Valente Hospital), Lisbon, Portugal.Method: The records of all patients died between April 1999 and April 2001 were reviewed to ascertain whether there had been significant differences regarding demographic factors, WHO notification categories and prior treatment history according to Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, HIV status, comorbid conditions, cause of death and laboratory parameters.Results: The 32 study patients were divided into 4 groups: HIV/TB-11 (34,4%), HIV/MDR-TB - 7 (21,9%), TB- 10 (31,3%) and MDR-TB - 4 (12,4%). There were 6 cases of associated neoplastic disease (18,8%) and 5 patients with COPD (15,6%). The cause of death was attributed to AIDS or TB in 14 patients (43,8%) and unrelated to tuberculosis in 18 patients (56,2%).Conclusions: Our data suggest that TB as a cause of death was associated with advanced age, in patients with no prior treatment history and without hospital complications. On the contrary, the group which death resulted from AIDS was formed by younger patients with noncompliant prior treatments. A significant increase of GOT levels was associated with cardiovascular complications (acute pulmonary embolism and arrhythmia) and low hemoglobin concentration predicted infectious complications (nosocomial pneumonia and opportunistic infections).REV PORT PNEUMOL 2002; VIII (3