Hyponatremia Incidence and its Association with Mortality in Patients with Pulmonary Tuberculosis Observational Study

Pulmonary tuberculosis has been of great interest for us given the high number of cases in our community at the Mexican-American border, however, this abundance of patients allows us to observe whether there is an association between the previously described development of hyponatremia and mortality in these patients. Objective: To determine the association between mortality and hyponatremia in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis. Material and Methods: We analyzed the electronic health record of patients with a pulmonary tuberculosis diagnosis from a 4-year period in the General Hospital of Mexicali, in México. Inclusion criteria were patients over the age of 18, a pulmonary tuberculosis diagnosis, and complete laboratory tests. The collected data was then analyzed through descriptive statistics. Results: 116 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis were included, of which 91 (78.4%) were male. A history of past Infection with the Human immunodeficiency virus and previous tuberculosis infection were shown to correlate with higher mortality and requirement of intensive care. The logistic regression analysis showed that hyponatremia had no association with mortality or the need for intensive care. Complications such as Acute respiratory distress syndrome and Acute kidney injury were related to higher mortality and need for critical care. Conclusions: The incidence of hyponatremia was higher than previously described, but there was no statistical association between hyponatremia and mortality in comparison to patients with normal sodium. Among this study’s weaknesses, most patients were hospitalized at the time of diagnosis, implying they could already have had a complication, thus increasing the incidence.