Tuberculosis in AIDS patients

Tuberculosis is the top agenda among opportunistic diseases and the most leading cause of death in HIV/AIDS patients. A total of 406 AIDS patients were recruited in this retrospective and descriptive study. 123/406 (30.3%) were diagnosed as AIDS-related tuberculosis (TB). Their age range from 17 to 69 years with a mean (±SD) of 37.2 (±9.51. There were significant association between occupation, or mode of HIV transmission and tuberculosis infection (p< 0.05). Pulmonary tuberculosis 104/123 (84.6%) was the most common disease location among TB patients. We found the significant association between the clinical presentations i.e. fever, cough, sputum or hemoptysis and TB patients (p<0.05), moreover, the level of CD4 cell count plays a significant role in association with the disease (p<0.05)in this study. The retrospective and descriptive study was conducted the Out-Patients Department (OPD) for infectious diseases in Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL) which is the largest government tertiary referral hospital, with 81 wards and 2,502 beds. There are about 30 new and 300 follow-up patients with HIVinfection per month that came for medical treatment in this hospital. We examined all medical records of HIV positive patients with various opportunistic infections from January 1994 to April 2001. The inclusion criteria for the study subjects were (1) HIV seropositivity as determined by any serological tests(ELISA (I,II), CLIA or LA) and confirmed by means of Western blot assay according to the 1993 CDC criteria for AIDS diagnosis, (2) patients aged >14 years, and (3) all patients, who were diagnosed as having developed tuberculosis if they fulfilled any one of the following criteria: clinical diagnosis of TB or laboratory tests i.e. CXR, sputum smear positive, culture positive from the sputum or other fluid, histology suggestive of TB that were noted in the patients medical record which were documented in the standardized data collection sheet