Interplay Of Serum Erythropoietin and Inflammatory Cytokine in Anemic Tuberculosis Patients

Abstract

Introduction- As tuberculosis is a chronic infectious disease the anemia of inflammation may contribute significantly in pathophysiology of anemic tuberculosis patients so this study was carried out to find out the role of Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha (TNF α) and serum erythropoietin (EPO) in anemic tuberculosis Patients. Material & Methods - The study comprised of sixty-eight anemic pulmonary tuberculosis patients. Levels of Heamoglobin ( Hb), se- rum Iron, serum erythropoietin & serum TNF α were analyzed in all of them. Result- The inflammatory parameter TNF α along with serum erythropoietin was found to be increased in anemic tuberculosis pa- tient and levels of Hb, iron was decreased. Hemoglobin showed fair degree of linear relationship with TNF levels (r = -0.273). Heamoglo- bin and erythropoietin did not show linear or inverse correlation with each other(r= 0.161). Iron showed negative but non linear corre- lation with TNF & EPO levels(r= -.128 & -0.042 ). TNF and erythro- poietin showed inverse but non linear correlation with each other ( r= -0.100). Conclusion - Insufficient response of erythropoietin to the degree of anemia was found and an increased level of tumor necrosis factor was probably the contributing factor in induction of anemia in tuber- culosis patients.

Keywords

• Anemia of chronic diseases
• erythropoietin
• Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha