Divergence in Accuracy of Diabetes Screening Methods in Tuberculosis Patients: A Cross-Sectional Study from Brazil and Peru

Abstract To evaluate the accuracy of distinct diabetes mellitus (DM) screening methods in persons with active Tuberculosis PWTB.Levels of fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) at the time of tuberculosis diagnosis at the study clinics were assessed from two distinct retrospective cohorts of PWTB from Brazil (n=116) and Peru (n=136) to evaluate accuracy for detecting pre-DM and DM cases. Additionally, we investigated the association of clinical and sociodemographic factors with tuberculosis and pre-DM or DM in each country.When comparing PWTB from Brazil and Peru, Peruvian individuals presented higher FPG levels at baseline (median [IQR] 91 [81–106 vs 95 [88.4–102.1]]; p=0.02), while those from Brazil had significant higher levels of HbA1c (median [IQR] 6.3 [5.7-7.15] vs 5.1 [4.9-5.4]; p<0.01). Additional analysis using the receiver operating characteristic curve revealed that the markers showed distinct accuracy to identify dysglycemia among PWTB in each country. Our findings indicate that there are significant differences in the total accuracy of the glycemic screening methods evaluated between PWTB from two highly endemic countries from South America, highlighting the need to revisit the diagnostic criteria of DM/PDM in individuals with tuberculosis.