Nutritional status and mortality in respiratory failure caused by tuberculosis.

A retrospective analysis of the records of all patients admitted to the intensive care unit with respiratory failure and nonmiliary tuberculosis was conducted to determine variables that might be predictive of survival. Nutritional status, as reflected by the patient's serum albumin and hemoglobin, were the best predictors of survival and were more helpful than the widely accepted APACHE II scoring system. This observation suggests that early and aggressive attention to improving the patient's nutritional status may be as important as effective antitubercular therapy and mechanical ventilation in salvaging these individuals.