Study of prevalence of extrapulmonary tuberculosis and sputum positive pulmonary tuberculosis with its chest roentgenographic patterns among patients in a tertiary care hospital

Bhushan C Shetty; Anoop Shetty

Volume : VII, Issue : VIII, August - 2018

Study of prevalence of extrapulmonary tuberculosis and sputum positive pulmonary tuberculosis with its chest roentgenographic patterns among patients in a tertiary care hospital

Bhushan C Shetty, Anoop Shetty

Abstract :

Introduction :Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the major global health threats leading to morbidity and mortality ^(1,2). One in three persons across the world representing 2–3 billion individuals are known to be infected with Mycobacterium Tuberculosis (M. Tuberculosis) of which 5–15% are likely to develop active TB disease during their lifetime. Smear positive PTB cases are more infectious than the smear negative cases(3) .Using the Directly Observed Treatment-Short course (DOTS) program the World Health Organization�s global target was to detect 70% of new sputum-smear positive PTB cases.

Aims and objectives : (1) To study the prevalence of extrapulmonary and sputum positive pulmonary tuberculosis among patients in a tertiary care hospital

(2) To study the various chest roentgenographic patterns in sputum positive tuberculosis patients

Materials and methods : A prospective study conducted between 1^st October 2016 to 28^thfeb 2018, where 100 adult patients with cough of duration of 2 weeks or longer underwent diagnostic evaluation for TB and other pneumonias, including sputum examination and mycobacterial culture, and chest radiograph(CXR). Radiologists reviewed CXRs using a standardised interpretation.

Results : Of the 100 cases ,78 of them were males and 22 females. 97 were pulmonary tuberculosis and 3 were extrapulmonary tuberculosis. Among 97 pulmonary tuberculosis, 31 were sputum positive remaining negative. The commonest chest radiographic pattern observed is heterogenous opacities suggestive of infiltrates(36.08%), followed by that is cavities(26.8%). Commonest chest radiographic pattern among sputum positive patients is also pulmonary infilterates(58%).among 3 cases of extrapulmonary TB, 2 were neurotuberculosis and 1 was lymph node TB.

Conclusion :Tuberculosis remains one of the most deadly infectious diseases and has claimed millions of lives for many years.The smear positive PTB case detection rate indicated in this study is significantly lower than the countries which met the 70% target of the World Health Organization. Serial sputum examination showed a considerable rate of positivity in the second sputum sample when compared with the others.radiographic correlation with symptoms still remains a way for starting of antitubercular treatment.