Low BMI, presence of diabetes affect TB treatment outcomes

Low BMI was significantly associated with an increased risk for adverse treatment outcomes in patients with tuberculosis, although comorbid diabetes resulted in “unexpectedly” better outcomes for these patients, according to a study in a South Indian cohort.

“The study was initiated in response to a request for proposals to create the RePORT India consortium,” Hardy Kornfeld, MD, professor in the department of medicine at the University of Massachusetts, told Healio. “The rationale was that nearly all the studies of TB-diabetes comorbidity at the time — approximately 7 years ago — were retrospective in nature, had imprecise clinical definitions for diabetes mellitus, such as reported history, and were not conducted in India, which has the highest number of people living with the combined diseases.”