Effect of Body Weight on Cytokine Response to Anti-tubercular Therapy in Patients with HIV Infection and Tuberculosis

Introduction: Nutrition plays an important role in stimulating the immune response to varied pathogens especially in patients with tuberculosis. Cytokine response to antitubercular therapy is highly variable in patients with HIV infection and Nutrition plays an important role in determining this response Objectives: To study the effect of body mass index in the levels of cytokines IL-10, IP-10, IL-4 and Interferon- Gamma before and after treatment with anti tuber-cular therapy in patients with HIV infection Material and methods: It is a prospective cross sectional study , with a population of 50 individuals with HIV infection with tuberculosis were studied. Results: The mean levels of cytokines IFN-Gamma, IP-10, IL-10 and IL-4 in low BMI group before initiation of ATT are 72.62U/l, 8.90pg/ml, 26pg/ml and 1.24pg/ml. The levels after completion of 02 months of ATT are 17.10, 4.56 , 9.14 and 0.57 respectively. The mean levels of cytokines IFN-Gamma, IP-10, IL-10 and IL-4 in normal BMI group before initiation of ATT are 22.32, 4.17, 11.25 and 0.78. The levels after completion of 02 months of ATT are 17.10, 4.56 , 9.14 and 0.57 respectively. Conclusions: BMI as surrogate marker for nutrition pals an important role in cytokine response. The change in levels of Interferon - gamma in low BMI group were statistically significant.