The incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis in patients with anthracosis

Background: Anthraco-fibrosis is a potential risk factor for tuberculosis (TB). The aim of this study was to compare the incidence of pulmonary TB in patients with anthracosis and patients without anthracosis. Methods: In this study, all patients who were admitted to the study were selected through enumeration method between 2017 and 2018. Patients with radiological evidence of TB has been considered as suspected of pulmonary TB, and bronchoscopy has been used to detect anthracosis. 40 patients were enrolled as anthracosis patients and 138 as non-anthracosis group. The final diagnosis of active tuberculosis was performed by PCR assay using bronchoalveolar lavage. The data were analyzed by SPSS V.22 using chi-square and logistic regression tests. Results: The incidence of active TB in women and men was 19.3% and 2.1%, respectively (p < 0.001) and the incidence of anthracosis was 28.9% and 16.8% respectively (p = 0.05) which both had a significant difference and were higher in women. Of all patients with anthracosis, 22.5% had active TB. The findings showed that exposure to smoke and anthracosis increases the risk of TB significantly (p < 0.001). Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the patients with anthracosis and those who had long-term exposure to smoke are needed to be evaluated in case of active tuberculosis.