Background: Reversible peripheral blood abnormalities are commonly associated with pulmonary tuberculosis and these hematological changes act as marker for the diagnosis, prognosis and response to therapy. There is no comprehensive study assessing the haematological abnormalities in these patients from the Indian subcontinent. The present study has been an attempt to investigate hematological changes in patients with active pulmonary and extrapulmonary TB. An attempt has also been made to assess the effect of six months antituberculosis therapy on the haematologic abnormalities.

Material & Methods: The study subjects included 100 patients above 12 years of age without HIV co-infection of newly diagnosed cases of pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis diagnosed. For haematological analysis, about 3-4 ml peripheral venous blood was drawn aseptically with the help of sterile syringe. Two ml was transferred into a tube containing 0.2 ml of 4% EDTA solution and analyzed in the Hematology Analyzer for evaluation of different blood parameters. The remaining 2 ml of the blood were used for ESR determination.

Results: Out of the 100 cases of tuberculosis collected from our hospital, 55 patients were PTB, and 45 were of extra-pulmonary tuberculosis. Anemia was identified in 71 patients (71%) at the time of diagnosis of TB. In 38 patients, the hemoglobin concentration was less than 10 g/dL. Mean ESR in all patients was 67.6 mm/hr with no statistically significant difference between pulmonary, extra-pulmonary and disseminated TB. The WBC count presented variable features. Total leukocytes count was lower than normal in 5 (7.8%) and 3 (8.8%), while lymphocytopenia in 37 (57.8%) and 14 (41.2%) in male and female patients respectively. Thrombocytopenia were observed in 9 (14%) and 4 (11.8%) in male and female patients respectively.

Discussion: Some haematological abnormalities are quite common in patients with pulmonary TB and physicians must maintain a high index of suspicion for diagnosis of pulmonary TB in patients with these abnormalities.

Keywords: Tuberculosis, haematological abnormalities, diagnosis, prognosis.