Assessment of Glutathione and Malondialdehyde in Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients in Edo State, Nigeria

Background and Objective: Tuberculosis is a major global health problem ranking as the eighth leading cause of death in low and middle-income countries. This study aimed to assess the body mass index, malondialdehyde and glutathione of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis in Edo State, Nigeria. Materials and Methods: A total of 200 samples were recruited for this study comprising 150 test subjects and 50 healthy control subjects. Malondialdehyde and glutathione were determined using ELISA (Elabscience Biotechnology Inc., United States of America). Statistical analysis was done using One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and the student’s t-test. Results: Significant difference was accepted at p<0.05. The results obtained showed that BMI and GSH significantly increased, while MDA significantly decreased in test subjects compared with a control group (p<0.05). The BMI, MDA and GSH were significantly higher in female test subjects compared with their male counterparts (p<0.05). The MDA significantly increased, while GSH significantly decreased with age (p>0.05). There was a significant decrease (p<0.05) in MDA and a significant increase in GSH of test subjects on therapy for 6 and 2 months, respectively compared with treatment naive test subjects (new case). Conclusion: The pulmonary tuberculosis patients had a significant increase in oxidative stress marker (MDA) with a corresponding reduction in antioxidant marker (GSH). This is an indication that tuberculosis patients do not have enough antioxidants to ward off free radicals generated by the infection.