A comparison of HTLV-1 Infection Frequency in Patients with or without Tuberculosis

Introduction: To recognize the predisposing factors in tuberculosis as an endemic infection in Northeast province of Iran, this study was aimed to evaluate whether HumanT-lymphocyte type 1 (HTLV-I) as an immunosuppressive factor increases the risk of tuberculosis. Materials and Methods: A Case-control study was conducted in 278 tuberculosis patients from 2007 to 2010, in Mashhad, Iran. Tuberculosis has been diagnosed by gold standard tests like sputum culture, bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) culture or cytology. For detection of HTLV-I antibody, Enzyme Linked Immunosorbant Assay method and western Blot as the confirming test were performed. Then 276 healthy cases were matched for gender and age. Results: The mean age of tuberculosis patients was 49.67±21.36 years and for control cases was 48.36±20.74. In patients group, 114 (41.6%) were male, 160 (58.4%) were female and in controls 123 (44.6%) were male and 153 (55.4%) were female. Pulmonary tuberculosis was presented in 84.2% of the patients. The frequency of HTLV-1 was 2.9% and 3.3% in patients and controls, respectively.HTLV-I frequency was higher in male patients and it increased by age. Conclusion: Regarding to this study, HTLV-I infection is not stand-alone sufficient for increasing the risk of tuberculosis.