Impact of HIV Co-Infection on Clinical Presentation in Patients with TB and Correlation of the Findings with Level of Immune Suppression

BACKGROUND: The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) has long been known to alter the clinical presentation of tuberculosis (TB), which varies according to the time of occurrence of TB infection and the level of immunodeficiency. Identifying variations in clinical features in HIV-TB coinfection might be helpful in settings with limited diagnostic facilities. The aim of this study was to assess the clinical presentation of TB in HIV coinfection and associate clinical findings with level of immune suppression (CD4 count). MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this prospective, cross-sectional observational study 110 patients having TB-HIV co-infection were assessed for clinical presentation and correlation with CD4 count. The study setting was a tertiary care teaching hospital. Patients were categorized in three group based on CD4 counts as group I: ≤ 100 cells/cmm, group II: 101–200 cells/cmm and group III: > 200 cells/cmm. RESULTS: 110 patients were enrolled, 70% had CD4 cell count < 200 cells/mm(3). Mean age and CD4 cell were 33.82±8.79 years and 181.7cells/cmm, respectively. Most common form of tubercular involvement was pulmonary (56.4%) followed by combined pulmonary and extra-pulmonary involvement (28.2%) and exclusively extra-pulmonary (15.5%). No significant intergroup difference was observed in site of involvement among three groups (p=0.700). Cough (91.8%) followed by low grade fever (85.5%), anorexia (82.7%) and weight loss (66.4%) were the commonest presenting symptom without any significant inter group difference. 70.9% patients were in undernourished category and 53.6% were febrile on examination. Sputum negative TB was noted 53.8%. 72.0% of patients with CD4 counts ≤100 had sputum negative TB as compared to sputum positive TB (28%). CONCLUSION: Due to varied clinical presentation of TB in HIV patients, ample knowledge of the clinical spectrum at different levels of immunosuppression is absolutely necessary to identify such patients early.