Incidence and Clinical profiles of Pulmonary and Extra-Pulmonary Tuberculosis patients in North Indian population: A hospital based Retrospective study

Introduction: Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the most important global health problems. The prevalence of TB is high among the developing world. This retrospective study was carried out to find the incidence and clinical profiles of pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis patients in North Indian population. Material and methods: A retrospective analysis of 552 patients having EPTB and PTB was undertaken from the Dept. of Respiratory Medicine, King George’s Medical University, U.P., Lucknow, out of which 300 were of pulmonary tuberculosis and 252 of EPTB. Demographic characteristics, clinical features and apparent risk factors of disease were obtained from medical case records of all patients visiting the hospital from. The Study included only the confirmed cases of EPTB and PTB with or without other co-infections. Results: Results were tabulated and statistically studied. The prevalence of EPTB was higher among females than males as compared to PTB and this was statistically significant (p=0.001). No significant (p>0.05) association was found between EPTB and PTB according to the place of residence. However, the tobacco habit, smoking habit, alcohol use and family history were found to be significantly (p<0.01) associated with the type of TB. Pleural (62.3%) site of EPTB was a most common site in EPTB patients. The study shows a significant (p=0.04) association between age distribution and disease condition (both EPTB and PTB) among males. A similar observation was found among female patients. The prevalence of EPTB was 1.80 times significantly higher among smokers. The prevalence of EPTB was also higher among those who had a family history of tuberculosis infection in comparison with new cases. Diabetes was present in 16.7% of the EPTB patients and MDR-TB was present in 12.7%. HIV was present in 8%. Most of the patients of EPTB were new cases (88.1) in comparison with the retreatment cases (11.9). Conclusion: Among evaluated tuberculosis patients, maximum had EPTB. Pleural tuberculosis was the most common presentation of EPTB. Both pulmonary, as well as extrapulmonary forms of tuberculosis, affected the younger population, between 20-40 years of age, more commonly. The study shows female preponderance among EPTB cases as compared to PTB cases. In female population, EPTB affected younger age group as compared to male patients where PTB was found to be more common. A Higher proportion of EPTB cases were found to be HIV positive and suffering from diabetes as compared to PTB.