1.Pre-existing chronic medical illnesses and follow up status among active pulmonary tuberculosis cases in a district population
Thai Lun Tan ; Li Yuan Lee ; Kig Tsuew Yong ; Muhammad Afiq Bin Rohimi ; Shoen Chuen Chiew ; Sing Hoon Cheng ; Hafizah Binti Mohamed Haniba ; Min Tat Ding
The Medical Journal of Malaysia 2020;75(3):204-208
Introduction: The knowledge of pre-existing medical
illnesses and their follow up status among active pulmonary
tuberculosis (PTB) subjects can help in tuberculosis (TB)
control programme. The aims of our study were to examine:
the prevalence of pre-existing chronic medical illnesses, the
follow up status of known pre-existing co-morbid and to
distinguish between diagnosed and undiagnosed preexisting tuberculosis related chronic medical illnesses
among our active PTB subjects.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective review of
demographic and clinical data of active PTB subjects that
were diagnosed between January 2015 and June 2017 in the
district of Manjung, Perak, Malaysia. Among the 302 TB
clinical notes reviewed, 253 patients were included. Subjects
below the age of 18 years and whose follow up centres for
their medical illnesses that were located outside of Manjung
were excluded. Demographic and clinical data were
collected using pre-tested data collection form by trained
investigators. The data was analysed using SPSS Version
20.0.
Results: We identified diabetes mellitus as the most
prevalent pre-existing co-morbid (77 cases) and almost 90%
(68 cases) of these diabetic subjects were diagnosed prior to
active PTB diagnosis. This was followed by Human
Immunodeficiency Virus and Hepatitis C infection which
accounted for 12.0% (30 cases) of the study populations.
Among 132 subjects who had pre-existing chronic medical
illnesses, only 74 subjects (29%) were under regular follow
up at healthcare facilities in Manjung prior to PTB diagnosis.
Conclusion: Overall, our research provides evidence on the
existence of wide variation of clinical background among
active PTB subjects.