THE STUDY OF PREVALENCE OF TUBERCULOSIS IN HIV INFECTED AND AIDS PATIENTS AND ITS CORRELATION WITH CD4 COUNT

This study was conducted at Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal on 50 number of HIV/AIDS patients. Male comprised the majority of the cases (80%) and maximum number of patients were in the age group between 31 ? 40 years of age (44%) with an average age of 33.72 years. The most common route of transmission was intravenous drug use (54%) followed by heterosexual contact (34%). The most clinical features observed were fever > 1 month (68%), weight loss > 10%, body weight (56%), cough (36%), headache (28%), oral thrush and neck stiffness (24%) each and altered sensorium (20%). Co-infection with tuberculosis (TB) was recorded in 52% cases and it was more in patients with lower CD4 cell counts. In cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) analysis protein was raised in 44% cases and reduced level of sugar was seen in 89% cases. In all the cases increased cell count with lymphocytic predominance was noted. Cryptococcus was detected in 56% cases but no Acid-Fast-Bacilli (AFB) was detected. Histopathological examination of fine needle cytology (FNAC) lymph node showed tubercular lymphadenitis in majority of the cases with positive AFB in few cases. An Extrapulmonary (61%) manifestation of tuberculosis was more than the pulmonary (27%) manifestations and the difference was more with lower CD4 cell counts (≤ 50 cells/cumm). However, the different clinical pattern of tuberculosis in relation to CD4 cell count was insignificant (p>0.05).