Haptoglobin polymorphism and mortality in patients with tuberculosis

The three predominant phenotypes of haptoglobin are Hp 1-1, Hp 2-1 and Hp 2-2 and there are functional differences between the different haptoglobin phenotypes. As haptoglobin polymorphism has been considered a candidate genetic factor in the pathophysiology of tuberculosis, we conducted this study to determine whether susceptibility to clinical pulmonary tuberculosis is related to the haptoglobin phenotype; a second study question was whether the haptoglobin phenotype is predictive of outcome in patients treated for this condition.