The causes of death among patients with tuberculosis in Khuzestan, Iran

Objective: To assess the cause of death in tuberculosis patients. Methodology: It is a retrospective descriptive study conducted in Khuzestan province in the south west of Iran, from 2002 to March 2006. Medical records of tuberculosis patients over the 5-year period were reviewed and death data were analyzed. Inclusion criteria were documented TB, diagnosed based on National Tuberculosis Program (NTP), extracted data were analyzed in SPSS11.5 system and by descriptive statistics. Results: One hundred and twenty five deaths (3.15%) with mean age of 48.96+/- 10.03 years were detected. The frequency rate for cigarette smoking, diabetes, chronic renal failure, MDR-TB, imprisonment, HIV infection and injection drug usage were 31.2%,16%, 6.4%,6.4%,22.4%,13.6% and 22.4%, respectively. Eighty four deaths (67.2%) were directly attributed to tuberculosis, among them overwhelming TB disease, haemoptysia, and MDR-TB accounted as the cause of death in 77.4%, 13.1%, 9.5% and 6.4% respectively. Forty one (32.8%) deaths were due to other medical problems, which included AIDS, cardiovascular diseases, bacterial super infection and cancers i.e. 21.9%, 19.5%, 17.1% and 12.2% respectively. Conclusions: This study showed that overwhelming TB disease, haemoptysis, cardiovascular diseases, bacterial super infection and cancers are the main cause of death. Smoking, imprisonment, injection drug usage and diabetes are frequent risk factors for TB mortality.