Tuberculosis co-infection has no detrimental effect on initial vital signs in hospitalised COVID-19 patients
Heni Muflihah1,*), Santun B Rahimah1, Fajar A Yulianto2, Rina3, Edi Sampurno3

1) Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine Universitas Islam Bandung, Jl. Tamansari 20, Bandung 40116, Indonesia
*henimuflihah[at]unisba.ac.id
2) Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine Universitas Islam Bandung, Jl. Tamansari 20, Bandung 40116, Indonesia
3) RS Paru Dr.H.A Rotinsulu, Jl. Bukit Jarian 40, Bandung 40141, Indonesia

Abstract

Indonesia is the second largest of tuberculosis (TB) endemic country in the world and affected by devastated coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The clinical manifestation caused by co-infection of TB and COVID-19 in Indonesia is unknown. Vital signs are standard clinical manifestation examined during hospitalisation. We aimed to analyse the vital signs of hospitalized COVID-19 patients who had TB co-infection and had no TB infection. We conducted a retrospective study using medical record of patients who had confirmed COVID-19 and hospitalized in Dr. Rotinsulu Lung Hospital from January 2020 to December 2021. TB and COVID-19 co-infected group (TB COVID) was firstly screened as those had both diagnosis confirmed COVID-19 and TB during hospitalisation in electronic medical record. The COVID group was those without TB diagnose during hospitalisation and randomly selected for minimum sample size. Vital signs (systolic and diastolic blood pressure, respiratory rate and O2 saturation) were data firstly recorded during hospitalisation. The differences of vital signs between two group were analysed by Mann-Whitney. The 165 participants enrolled compromised 83 (50.3%) TB co-infection and 82 (49.7%) no TB infection. TB COVID had lower (p=0.0096) median systolic blood pressure (mmHg) (118 (IQR 110-128)) than COVID (120 (IQR 116-132)). The median diastolic blood pressure (80 mmHg) in both of group was similar. The median for respiratory rate in TB COVID was 23 (IQR 22-24) and not significantly different to that in COVID (p=0.54). TB COVID had significant higher (p=0.0238) median O2 saturation (%)(97 (IQR 94-98)) than COVID (96 (IQR 93-97). In conclusion, this study showed that median for vital signs in both of groups was in normal range. COVID-19 patients co-infected with TB had lower systolic blood pressure and higher O2 saturation. Co-infection of TB is unlikely to have detrimental effect on initial vital signs in hospitalised COVID-19 patients.

Keywords: tuberculosis, COVID-19, co-infection, vital signs

Topic: Biomedical Engineering