Estimation of Serum Ferritin and Complete Blood Count among Tuberculosis Patients Attending Kosti Teaching Hospital, White Nile State, Sudan
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Abstract
Introduction: Iron deficiency (ID) is the most common cause of nutritional deficiency anemia in the developing world, and complete blood count (CBC) is one of the most common blood tests that is used to diagnose hematological abnormalities. Also, serum Ferritin is a more sensitive test used to evaluate and reflect iron status in the body. Tuberculosis is a major of a big health problem in the world, especially in Sudan. This study was done in Kosti teaching hospital from June to September 2018.
Study design: Case-control study. Fifty patients infected with tuberculosis were selected as cases, and fifty normal persons (without TB) were matched as a control group.
Methodology: 2.5 ml blood samples were taken in ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA) treated tubes and were analyzed in the Mindray BC-3000 automated hematology analyzer. The Biosystem BTS-350 spectrophotometer protocol has been used for Ferritin measurement. ESR was read using the Westergren tube method.
Results: The results showed highly significant differences in all hematological parameters in TB patients when compared with healthy person and the P value was 0.000 in all parameters, 0.01 in the Hb. Also, patients with normal and high serum Ferritin were detected (17 with normal value and 23 with a high serum Ferritin), and less than 10 cases of low serum Ferritin were those suffering from iron deficiency anemia. The ESR values of TB patients obtained in this study were significantly higher than control values.
Conclusion: Most of the patients were anemic with low Hb and RBC indices. The study found a strong positive association of anemia without iron deficiency and TB (23 cases with high serum Ferritin and 10 cases with low serum Ferritin), suggesting that factors other than iron deficiency also contribute to the association of anemia with poor outcomes, which may be due to chronic infection.
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