Serum glycoproteins in pulmonary tuberculosis.

Serum glycoprotein levels were studied in 50 patients of pulmonary tuberculosis and 25 healthy controls. Ten of the tuberculosis patients had stage I disease, 24 stage II, 9 stage III and 7 had pulmonary tuberculosis with effusion. The serum levels of protein bound hexose, protein bound hexosamine, protein bound fucose and protein bound sialic acid were significantly higher (P less than 0.001) in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis as compared to controls; the mean values being 195.6, 189.1, 16.3 and 120.8 mg/dl respectively in patients and 117.0, 84.1, 7.7 and 67.2 mg/dl respectively in controls. The levels were not influenced by age and sex of the subjects in both groups. The levels were found to increase in all the stages of pulmonary tuberculosis with a marginal difference. Treatment with antituberculosis drugs resulted in a decrease in ESR and the various fractions of serum glycoproteins at subsequent follow up, however, the mean levels did not reach those of control subjects and were not influenced by the type of therapy.