Effect Of Pulmonary Tuberculosis On Haemostatic Properties Of Blood

Abstract

A total of 100 subjects were used in this study consisted of 40 known pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) (17 male and 23 female) patients attending the out-patient clinic at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital and Central Hospital, Benin City with 10 newly diagnosed PTB patients, as well as fifty apparently healthy (17 male and 23 female) individuals from the Hospital community as controls. Plasma fibrinogen concentration (PFC), factor VII (F-VIIc) and factor VIII (F-VIIIc) clotting activities were estimated using standard methods. Plasma fibrinogen levels, in pulmonary tuberculosis patients were significantly higher (P < 0.05) while F VII and F VIII were significantly lower (P<0.0001) in PTB patients compared with controls. The controls had significantly lower PFC (P< 0.001) and significantly higher F-VIIc and F-VIIIc (P< 0.05) compared with pulmonary tuberculosis patients. However, the male controls had lower PFC, F-VIIc and F-VIIIc (P< 0.05) compared to female controls; while the males with tuberculosis had higher PFC (P < 0.05) and lower F-VIIc and F-VIIIc (P < 0.05) than female tuberculosis patients. Pulmonary tuberculosis patients with haemoglobin genotype AS had higher PFC and lower F-VIIc and F-VIIIc compared with tuberculosis patients with haemoglobin genotype AA respectively. There was a positive linear correlation between PFC and F-VII (r = 0.42, P<0.001). During treatment of 10 new tuberculosis patients, PFC decreased and F-VII increased significantly towards control values over the 8 weeks period, but no change in F-VIII after 8 weeks was observed. These results suggest that the combination of hyperfibrinogenemia and a decrease in factors VIIc and VIIIc reflects haemostatic imbalance. These may lead to thrombotic and haemorrhagic complications in pulmonary tuberculosis patients.

Keywords: Tuberculosis, Factor VII, Factor VIII, Plasma Fibrinogen

Annals of Biomedical Science Vol. 3 (1&2) 2004: pp. 23-32