Study population

From January 2010 to December 2011, a total of 112 inpatients (aged 19 to 91 years) diagnosed with PTB consisting of 78 (69.6%) men and 34 (30.4%) women were enrolled in this study. Additionally, 120 healthy donors who had undergone a physical examination in the hospital and were designated healthy were enrolled in this study. The cases and the controls were selected by simple random sampling technique according to random number table method. The inclusion criteria for the pulmonary TB cases was as follows: (1) the diagnosis of TB was based on clinical and radiological findings together with the positive identification of acid-fast bacilli (AFB) or culture; (2) the patient was registered from January 2010 to December 2011; (3) the patient was willing to participate in the study; and (4) complete medical records were available; The exclusion criterion for the cases and controls was as follows: people with comorbidities such as lung carcinoma, asthma, diabetes mellitus and other immunosuppressive conditions or people without providing correct information.

Clinical features of pulmonary TB including hemoptysis, fever, a history of treatment with anti-TB drugs and cavitary lesion as well as age, gender were reviewed.