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Study of the Iron Chelating Effect of Green Tea in Smear Positive TB Patients using Sputum Smear, Serum Malondialdehyde and Blood Iron Indices

Shahryar Eghtesadi

Green tea with possessing iron chelating properties can be useful in TB treatment and management. We studied the effect of green tea consumption on iron status and improving process of pulmonary tuberculosis treatment (accelerating the negative sputum smear, reducing the level of oxidative stress). Following the  approval  by  Ethics Committee for Human Studies of Golestan and Tehran Universities of Medical Sciences and also obtaining the written consent of patients , this double-blinded randomized clinical trial study, was conducted on patients with TB, who were assigned randomly to the intervention group (41 patients) receiving 500 mg catechin of green tea extract and the control group (39 subjects) receiving placebo for two months, since the beginning of  concomitant anti-TB treatment .  Sputum evaluation was carried out on three slides using the Ziehl Nelson method. At first, the demographic and dietary intake data  were obtained. . After obtaining 10 ml of venous blood, Hemoglobin (Hb), Transferrin, Ferritin, Total iron binding capacity (TIBC), Iron and Serum malondialdehyde (MDA) were measured at the beginning and end of the study. Sputum samples were collected from the third week (every 10 days) and the reduction of microbial load was also tested until sputum smear became negative.Data were processed using independent and paired t-test, McNemar, Wilcoxon, Kaplan-Meier, Log-rank test and Cox regression model. P-value was taken significant as <0.05.Average daily energy intake of patients was 1518±431  kcal, distribution of which was as follow: carbohydrates (58%), protein (17%) and fat (22%).Vitamin D and Zinc intake of patients were less and iron intake was higher than the DRI. Weight changes in both groups of placebo and green tea had tendency of increase with a significant difference at two and six month follow ups (pα0.0001). However, there were no significant changes due to intervention compared to placebo