A study of micronutrient status in multidrug resistant tuberculosis patients at a tertiary care center

Abstract

Micronutrients deficiency is supposed to impair the overall immune function and causes increased resistance to infection. Such a relationship exists even in tuberculosis. A major threat is multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). In India, few studies are available to discuss about risk factors and serum zinc and selenium status in MDR-TB. Material and Methods: A case control study of 25 diagnosed MDR-TB patients from Damian foundation and 25 healthy controls from Narayan Medical College were recruited after laboratory tests, chest X-ray and clinical history. 5 ml of blood collected and serum zinc and selenium levels were assessed for both groups and correlated with demographic factors, duration of treatment, and BMI. Results:The results indicate that the MDR-TB patients have altered profile of the serum zinc and serum selenium in their sera and this could be more due to the active disease, causing oxidative stress which depletes the micronutrients. In this study, the mean serum zinc levels were 79.08 ± 14.2 μg/dL and 91.1 ± 15.2μg/dL in case and control groups respectively. Serum selenium levels were 56.2 ± 11.1 μg/dL and 65.2 ± 4.2 μg/dL in case and control groups respectively. In both the groups micronutrient levels showed statistical significant. Conclusions:The risk factors in our study, such as lower level of serum zinc was one of the concern for the development of MDR-TB and an attempt to minimize them might contribute to control the upward slope of MDR-TB.