Objective:

To establish the association between type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) and pulmonary tuberculosis (TBp) in patients attending the outpatient service in the Health Care Provider (IPS from "Institución Prestadora de Salud" in Spanish) of Imsalud of the Atalaya Zone in Cucuta, Norte de Santander.

Material and methods:

An observational, analytical, case-control study was conducted, in which all the patients who attended the IPS of Imsalud in the Atalaya Zone from January 2013 to December 2015 (28,015 patients) were selected. The medical records of patients with a diagnosis of TB (100) were reviewed and the consolidation of diabetic patients (847) was obtained from the Imsalud database.

Results:

Out of a total population of 28,015 patients, 100 (0.4%) and 847 (3%) had a diagnosis of TBp and DM2, respectively. Out of the 100 patients with tuberculosis, 17 (0.1%) also had a diagnosis of DM2. The statistical association (chi square) for the variables DM2 and TBp reported a result of 66.8 for a p: <0.05 (CI: 5.1-8.3).

Conclusions:

The literature suggests that there is greater susceptibility in people with DM2 to contract TBp and that this can be explained by defects in cellular immunity, caused by periods of hyperglycemia, in addition to the alteration of the functions of polymorphonuclear leukocytes. In this study, a significant association of the DM2-TBp binomial was established, which states that there is a 6.7 times greater risk (OR) of developing TBp in patients with a history of DM2 than in those who do not have this comorbidity.

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