Of these, 187 patients were included in the study with 76 TB patients who had normal blood sugar (normoglycemia) levels and 111 TB patients having HBA1C levels between 5.7% to 6.4% indicating pre-diabetes. “Treatment outcomes like relapse and death were relatively higher among people with TB pre-diabetes compared to TB patients who had normal blood sugar,” Dr Vishwanathan points out. Higher rate of deaths occurred in the TB pre-diabetes group (6.3%) compared to the TB normoglycemia group (1.3%). “A random blood sugar test is effective for patients who have blood sugar over 200 mg/dl with symptoms like polyuria, polydipsia, weight loss. Only in screened patients with above 100 mg/dl fasting blood sugar patients, should an Oral Glucose Tolerance (OGT) test be done,” he says.

Source: The Hindu September 30, 2023 20:16 UTC