Purple urine bag syndrome (PUBS) is an infrequent condition, seen mostly in elderly female patients, characterized by an intense purple discoloration of contents of urine bag following long-term indwelling urinary catheterization. The purple discoloration is most often due to the presence of indigo and indirubin pigments which are metabolites of tryptophan. Urinary bacteria with indoxyl sulphatase activity metabolize indoxyl sulphate to produce indigo and indirubin, particularly in alkaline urine. We report an elderly woman with a urinary tract infection and constipation who presented with PUBS. The purple urine disappeared after antibiotic therapy and change of the urine bag. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of PUBS reported from this region.

Tuberculosis (TB) is primarily a lung disease (pulmonary tuberculosis, PTB) but the bacilli can also develop in other places in the body, such as the bones, liver and kidney as extra pulmonary tuberculosis. Hepatic and renal involvements in PTB patients are mostly secondary to TB chemotherapy that is potentially hepato-and nephro-toxic. In this study, the biochemical parameters that indicate renal and hepatic involvements were analyzed in the sera of MDR-TB patients with and without HIV co-infection prior to commencement of chemotherapy. Out of 115 MDR-TB patients (76 males and 39 females) recruited for the study, 22 patients (11 males and 11 females) were co-infected with HIV. Serum levels of sodium (Na + ), potassium (K + ), chloride (Cl -) were analyzed using Easylite (ISE technology), bicarbonate (HCO3 -) was analysed using back titration method, urea and creatinine were determined spectrophotometrically using Diacetlymonoxime (DAM) method and Jaffe's alkaline picrate method respectively. Total and direct bilirubin, serum glutamate oxaloacetate transferase (SGOT), serum glutamate pyruvate transferase (SGPT), alkaine phosphatase(ALP), total protein (TP) and albumin (Alb) were determined using Hitachi 912 autoanalyzer. There were no statistical significant differences in the renal and hepatic parameters of TB patients with HIV compared with TB patients without HIV. However, significantly higher proportions (89%) of MDR-TB patients had their SGOT within reference range. The mean values indicate that HIV infection did not significantly alter renal and hepatic profiles in MDR-TB patients prior to treatment.