Study of adrenal function in patients with tuberculosis.

Background: Although subclinical adrenal insufficiency has been documented in tuberculosis but it has been neglected in mainstream management of TB due to inconclusive data on its prevalence in TB. The fact that adrenal insufficiency may result not only in poor general condition of the patient but also sudden death due to adrenal crisis, makes it all the more important to address this issue seriously. In this non-randomized interventional study comprising of 100 cases of TB, our aim was to assess the adreno-cortical functions in patients with pulmonary TB (50 cases) and extra-pulmonary TB (50 cases) in an attempt to determine if there is any compromise of adrenal function.