Hematological profiles of patients with tuberculosis and nontuberculous mycobacteria infections in Bamako, Mali

Background: Pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the main causes of morbidity and mortality in Mali. Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) infections are very common but are often cofounded with TB because of the similarity of symptoms, which makes the diagnosis difficult. Hematological abnormalities associated with TB have been described, but not with NTM. Therefore, the goal of this study was to compare the hematological parameters of patients infected with TB and NTM infections. Methods: A cross-sectional study enrolling TB and NTM participants was conducted in 2018-2020. Five milliliters of venous blood and sputum samples were collected from each participant to determine the hematological parameters using the RUBY CELL-DYN Ruby Version 2.2 ML. A BACTEC MGIT 960 and multiplex reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction were used to distinguish Mycobacterium tuberculosis from NTM, respectively. Results: Of the total 90 patients enrolled, there was a decrease in hemoglobin and hematocrit levels in both the groups (P = 0.05). In addition, we found that the percentages of basophil cells (P = 0.01) and mean values of platelets (P = 0.04) were significantly higher in TB patients than those of NTMs. Moreover, the mean of absolute values of eosinophil cells of TB patients was significantly lower than those of NTMs (P = 0.03). Conclusion: We found significant statistical differences in basophils, platelets, and eosinophils in differentiating TB and NTM in this pilot study. Future studies with patients at different clinical stages are needed to confirm the hematological profiles of TB and NTM patients.