Radiological features of pulmonary tuberculosis in patients with diabetes mellitus
Background: The association of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) and diabetes mellitus (DM) is very common. Aims and objectives: To find out whether there is difference in presentation of radiological images of PTB in diabetic patients comparing to non-diabetic patients affected by PTB. Methods: We screened 97 diabetic patients with established diagnosis of PTB and 97 patients affected by PTB without diabetes mellitus. Chest radiography of both groups were reviewed and compared in the time of establishing PTB diagnosis. Then a partial tuberculous (TB) infiltrate regression on chest radiography after the antituberculous treatment initiation, defined as obvious reducing of infiltrate size, was observed. The time of radiological regression was estimated as the number of days needed for partial radiological regression. Results: On the chest radiography upper lung lobe is involved by TB lesions in 42.2% diabetic and 62.5% non-diabetic patients (p Conclusions: PTB in diabetic patients is more likely to present with atypical radiological images and radiological TB infiltrate regression is prolonged in diabetic patients.