International Journal of Medicine Research 21 International Journal of Medicine Research ISSN: 2455-7404; Impact Factor: RJIF 5.42 www.medicinesjournal.com Volume 2; Issue 2; March 2017; Page No. 21-23 Prevalence of diabetes mellitus among tuberculosis patient in Batticaloa district, Sri Lanka 1 M Umakanth, 2 S Rishikesavan 1 Lecturer in medicine, Faculty of health care sciences, Eastern University, Sri Lanka 2 Consultant respiratory Physician, Teaching hospital Batticaloa, Sri Lanka Abstract Introduction: Both diabetes (DM) and Tuberculosis (TB) are the chronic disease in the world especially in the south-East Asia. The association between diabetes mellitus and tuberculosis is a common occurrence in the worldwide. We all aware that, the prevalence of DM is increasing in resource deprived countries where TB is of high burden. A well strategically approach of bi- directional screening for two diseases will detect early and prevent complication of both DM and TB. Methodology: This was a facility based cross-sectional study was undertaken in the chest clinic Teaching hospital Batticaloa, Sri Lanka. All newly diagnosed TB patients attending to chest clinic were successively screened for DM.DM was diagnosed based on the World Health Organization diagnostic criteria. A pre-tested structured questionnaire was used to collect socio-demographic, lifestyles and clinical data. Results: Out of 102 TB cases, prevalence of DM was 22.5%. The majority of TB patients were underweight, it was around 50%. Obesity and overweight were observed only 18% of the population. There were no significant association between DM and other risk factors in our study. Conclusion: Routine screening of TB patients for DM is recommended in the study area. Keywords: tuberculosis, diabetes and prevalence Introduction Tuberculosis [TB] is an air born infection caused by Mycobacterium Tuberculosis. It is a major global health problem. It is estimated that in 2015, there were 10.4 million new cases Worldwide. However, number of TB deaths and incidence rate continuously fall globally [1] . Better TB control should address the risk factors such as Diabetes Mellitus [DM], human immunodeficiency virus, smoking and other co-morbid conditions. Increasing prevalence of DM is challenging task for TB management. Diabetes mellitus is chronic disease associated with impaired immune system. It directly correlates with risk of TB complication and significantly increases the burden of disease [2, 3, 4] . The involvement between DM and TB is supported by the fact that patients with DM have impaired cell-mediated immunity, renal failure, micronutrient deficiency and pulmonary microangiopathy, all of which augment their vulnerability to develop TB. Material and Methods This was the descriptive cross sectional study was undertaken at chest clinic in the Teaching hospital Batticaloa, Sri Lanka.This chest clinic maintain almost all TB patient’s records belongs to Batticaloa district. A pre tested structured questionnaire was filled with the help of patient’s medical records. We screened for diabetes to all tuberculosis patients, including new and re-treatment cases, sputum positive pulmonary TB, sputum negative pulmonary TB and extra- pulmonary cases, those who are age of more than 12 years old. We screened 102 patients for diabetes using standard diagnostic criteria of fasting blood glucose level of more than 126mg/l.In case of patients who had been already diagnosed as diabetes, details of treatment were collected. In order to find any association, we collected some more variables such as age, sex, degree of anemia and type of tuberculosis from the records. We also collected data of height and weight. The weight was taken with the standard weighing machine. The height was taken with heal, occiput and buttock against the wall. The Body mass index (BMI) was calculated by the formula, (weight in Kg)/ (height in mts) [2] . Results There were 102 TB patients were enrolled in our study. They all have completed details including fasting plasma glucose level. The mean age of males and females was 51.8 and 44.7 respectively. About 67.3% of study populations were unemployed. The majority of TB patients were underweight, it was around 50%. Obesity and overweight were observed only 18% of the population. The prevalence of diabetes in tuberculosis patients was found to be 22.5% [Table-2].The prevalence of Diabetes was found to be more in males [65.7%] when compared to females [34.3%]. Interestingly we found that 26.5% of TB patient’s hemoglobin level were below 10g/dl. There is no significant different between diabetes and non-diabetes patient with regards with hemoglobin. Table 1: Gender distribution Sex Frequency percent Male 67 65.7 Female 35 34.3 Total 102 100