Urogenital tuberculosis - new view on the problem

Introduction. Diagnostics of urogenital tuberculosis is usually late, due to the absence of pathognomonic signs of the disease. Materials and methods. The study included 49 patients with prostate tuberculosis and 105 patients with respiratory tuberculosis (control group). All patients were undergoing treatment in Novosibirsk Research Institute of Tuberculosis. Also, the distribution of urogenital tuberculosis (UGTB) by gender was studied according to the analysis of statistical reports on the regions of the Russian Federation (Siberian and Far Eastern Federal Districts), which are monitored by Novosibirsk Research Institute of Tuberculosis. The reports covered the period from 2008 to 2015. Results. Among eight years of the study, during only three of them the number of men with UGTB was equal or slightly more than the number of women with the disease. During other years, the disease was more prevalent in women. At the same time, malnutrition was typical for every fifth patient with respiratory tuberculosis and hypodynamia was typical for every third. In patients with prostate tuberculosis, mean body mass index (BMI) was 28 kg/m2; 53.8% of them were overweight; 35.0% of them had violations of carbohydrate metabolism and every fourth patient had hypercholesterolemia. Metabolic syndrome, which is defined as the combination of abdominal obesity, violations of carbohydrate and lipid metabolism and arterial hypertension, was diagnosed in 41.6% of patients with prostate tuberculosis. However, none of the patients with respiratory tuberculosis were diagnosed with this condition. Conclusions. 1. Even though urogenital tuberculosis is, by definition, a disease that affects the urinary system and the male reproductive system, it is more common among women; 2. Today urogenital tuberculosis does is not followed by any external manifestations, which may help detect the disease; 3. In half of cases, a patient with prostate tuberculosis has obesity and violations of carbohydrate and lipid metabolism; 4. 41.6% of patients with prostate tuberculosis were diagnosed with metabolic syndrome.