Tuberculosis in Chronic Kidney Disease

Introduction Given the increasing prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in tuberculosis (TB) endemic areas, a merging of CKD and TB epidemics could have significant public health implications, especially in low to middle income countries like India, which is experiencing rapid increase in CKD prevalence. The aim of this study is to analyze the prevalence of TB in patients with CKD. Methods A prospective study was done on 160 patients with CKD at Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi, both with and without dialysis. The patients were investigated to detect any form of TB. Results 22 patients showed evidence of tubercular infection (13.7%). Of these 22 subjects, 17 had extra-pulmonary and only 5 had pulmonary TB. TB infection was more prevalent among the patients on dialysis (18) than those who were not on dialysis (4). Conclusion Therefore, we infer that TB is more common in patients of CKD and patients of CKD need to be screened for TB more so due to their over lapping signs and symptoms.