The Oral Glucose Tolerance Test in Patients with Respiratory Infections

The aim of this study, carried out in a specialized centre for chest diseases in Turkey, was to determine the prevalence of glucose intolerance in tuberculosis (TB) and pneumonia so as to assess the specificity of the association of TB with diabetes mellitus. The study group comprised 58 active pulmonary TB patients without any history of diabetes mellitus and the matched control group consisted of 23 community-acquired pneumonia patients. An oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was performed at the time of diagnosis and 3 months after the treatment was started in both groups. Glucose intolerance was found in six (10.4%) patients and diabetes mellitus in five (8.6%) patients in the TB group. In the control group, four (17.4%) patients were found to be diabetic and none of them were glucose intolerant. There was no significant difference between the two groups (p > 0.05). There was a higher prevalence of abnormal OGTT results among elderly patients in both groups. OGTT results returned to normal in both the TB and pneumonia groups after treatment. The results suggest that glucose intolerance occurs in the setting of infection and is reversible following adequate antimicrobial treatment.