European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Background:Low birth weight is one of the most serious challenges in maternal and child health in both developed and developing countries. The present study was conducted to assess prevalence of low- birth weight babies

Background:Tuberculosis is an ancient disease observed during the Neolithic period and remains a serious problem in developing countries. Tuberculosis is a disease that can affect all age groups and all genders and can affect all organ systems in our body. Tuberculosis can affect most of the body's hematological parameters. TB affects hemoglobin levels, total number, red blood cell count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and platelet count, causing anemia, leukopenia or leukocytosis (extrapulmonary TB), thrombocytopenia, and increased ESR. Along with HIV, tuberculosis exacerbates the scenarios of thrombocytopenia, anemia, leukopenia, and pancytopenia. Aim: This study was done in NRI medical College Guntur to find out the haematological manifestation of pulmonary TB and to compare it with the hematological manifestation in HIV –TB co-infected patients.
Materials and Methods: 80 patients of more than 15 years of age group was selected for the study, who willingly consented to participate in the study. They were divided in 2 groups of 40 patients with only pulmonary TB and 40 patients with HIV – TB co-infected, according to ELISA positivity. Statistical comparison was analysed usng CHI square test.
Results: In our study, patients with tuberculosis had an elevated ESR count, but TB-HIV coinfection reduces the ESR count. 48% of TB with HIV anaemic men and 25% of women had 11 gm/dl. 46.25 percent of anaemic TB patients without HIV were male and female (27.02 percent). 56% of men had TB with HIV and 48% had TB without HIV. In the TB without HIV group, 51.1% of males and 27.9% of females had total RBC counts ≤ 3.8 million cells/cumm, compared to 51.3% of males and 35.1% of females in the TB with HIV group.
Conclusion: The study concluded that ESR is a marker of chronic inflammatory conditions such as tuberculosis and that HIV is an immunosuppressive state, and that co-infection with tuberculosis and HIV significantly reduces ESR scores in these patients.