Description

Prison staff lipid profile: friend or foe for latent tuberculosis infection?
Amanda Aparecida Silva de Aguiar1, Fernando Nunes Gavioli Boni1, Christiane Martinez Húngaro1, Lídia Raquel de Carvalho2, Rinaldo Poncio Mendes2, Eliana Peresi-Lordelo1

1University of Western São Paulo/UNOESTE, Presidente Prudente, SP, Brasil 
2São Paulo State University/UNESP, Botucatu, SP, Brasil 

Tuberculosis (TB) is a highly prevalent infectious disease in penitentiary units, a fact that makes prison staff a vulnerable population for latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) and its consequent activation. It is known that the lipid profile has an influence on the immune response, however its association with body mass index (BMI) and LTBI is still unclear. The objective of the study was to evaluate the lipid profile in the staff of a prison unit and its association with LTBI and the BMI. Thus, prison staff (n=86), with no previous history of TB, were studied at the Junqueirópolis Penitentiary Unit (Brazil), from August to December 2019. Participants were evaluated for three aspects: LTBI (QFT-TB Gold PLUS test; BMI; Serum lipid profile: total cholesterol, HDL and triglycerides by colorimetry. Comparison between groups was performed using the Mann-Whitney test (p<0.05). The research was ethically approved (Protocol: 96620518.7.0000.5515). Our results demosntrated that obese individuals without LTBI had higher levels of triglycerides compared to obese individuals with LTBI (p=0.026). The prevalence of hypolipidemia did not change due to the presence of LTBI, for any of the variables analyzed (p>0.05). In conclusion, high levels of triglycerides are associated with protection against LTBI, suggesting that the evaluation of the lipid profile is a low-cost resource that can be used as a risk marker in a population vulnerable to TB, such as prison staff.
Keywords: Triglycerides, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Risk factor, Prison