Tuberculosis treatment raises total cholesterol level and restores high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLC) in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine whether tuberculosis (TB) treatment normalizes the lipid profile strongly affected by pulmonary TB. Serum levels of total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and triglycerides (TG) were determined in 83 patients with pulmonary TB before and after treatment, and compared to results obtained from 100 control subjects without TB. Before treatment, levels of TC (p<0.005), HDL-C (p<0.005) and LDL-C (p<0.005) were significantly lower in pulmonary TB patients than normal subjects. Unlike TC and LDL-C, HDL-C decrease was correlated (r = 0.96, p<0.05) with smear positivity extent (SPE). At the end of TB treatment, which lasted six months, TC (p<0.01) and HDL-C (p<0.005) levels were significantly increased than before treatment while LDL-C stayed relatively unchanged. The treatment significantly reduced the atherogenic indices TC/HDL-C (p<0.001), LDL-C/HDL-C (p<0.001) and log (TG/HDL-C) (p<0.001) levels. Our results show that tuberculosis treatment increases TC levels and normalizes HDL while reducing atherogenic indices to below levels of controls.

Keywords: Pulmonary tuberculosis, lipid profile, treatment, atherogenic index

African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(41), pp. 6019-6024