Tuberculosis (TB) is a severe infectious disease that still represents a major cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. For these reasons, clinicians and radiologists should use all the available diagnostic tools in the assessment of the disease in order to provide precise indications about starting an anti-tubercular treatment and reduce risk of TB transmission and complications especially in developing countries where the disease is still endemic. As TB mycobacteria are mainly transmitted through respiratory droplets, the pulmonary parenchyma is usually the first site of infection. As a result, chest imaging plays a central role in the diagnostic process. Thoracic ultrasound (TUS) is a portable, non-invasive, radiation-free, and cost-contained technology which could be easily available in resource-limited settings. This perspective article focuses on the potential role of TUS in the diagnosis and management of patients with pulmonary TB. Unfortunately, there are still insufficient evidence and too contrasting data to judge TUS as an appropriate diagnostic method for the screening of the disease. Despite this, TUS may have a useful role in identifying pleural and anterior pericardial effusions or in the identification of abscesses of the anterior chest wall and paraspinal collections in low- and middle-income settings. In addition, TUS seems to have a milestone role in guiding minimally invasive interventional procedures, such as placement of chest tubes, drainage of loculated collections, thoracentesis and pericardiocentesis, and percutaneous biopsy of subpleural pulmonary consolidations or pleural plaques.

Necrotizing granulomatous diseases of the lungs are usually dependent on a narrow range of differential diagnoses. Tuberculosis (TB) is responsible for the largest number of cases, while necrotizing sarcoidosis is generally considered a rare and easily distinguishable disease substantially based on histological features. However, this entity has become a viable diagnosis in the absence of mycobacteria isolation or when a remarkable clinical improvement cannot be achieved with the combination of anti-TB drugs at full dosage. The classic manifestations of TB and sarcoidosis have an overlapping range for which it is sometimes difficult to make a clinical diagnosis. Furthermore, the role of mycobacteria as a trigger antigen capable of evoking the clinical expression of sarcoidosis is a hypothesis supported by evidence from some cases. We report a case of bilateral tuberculous pleurisy in a 45-year-old male native of a North-African region with an atypical severe multisystem disease characterized by a fever resistant to anti-TB therapy and respondent to corticosteroid treatment. The choice to continue both steroid and anti-TB therapy proved to be correct for the late evidence of TB mycobacterial growth only on pleural specimens. The case described is suggestive of a coexistent systemic sarcoid manifestation and low-antigen TB, which is an underrecognized entity in the medical literature.

Alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency (AATD) is a genetic condition caused by SERPINA1 mutations, which culminates into lower protease inhibitor activity in the serum and predisposes to emphysema. Clinical manifestations of AATD are often associated to ZZ (p.Glu342Lys) and SZ (p.Glu264Val) genotypes and less frequently to rare deficiency or null alleles in heterozygous and homozygous states. We report a case of a 52-year-old woman with bronchiectasis without other potential causes other than an electrophoresis that showed a decrease of alpha-1 globin band and AAT levels below the normal value (78 mg/dl; v.n. 90-200 mg/dl). No S or Z mutation was identified, but sequencing analysis found a novel missense variant Ile74Asn (c.221T > A) in heterozygous state on an M3 allele (Glu400Asp) in the exon 2 of the SERPINA-1gene, probably leading to a dysfunctional protein. This mutation has never been previously identified, and it is interesting to note the association with bronchiectasis in the absence of emphysema.

BackgroundIt is still unclear if low lymphocyte levels are directly related to immunological modifications induced by the TB infection or if they depend on the general pre-existing health impairment of affected patients. Our aim was to detect eventual differences in the immunological status of patients with pulmonary TB compared to an age and sex-matched group of hospitalized patients with other bacterial community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). In addition, we tried to assess an association between alterations in the peripheral lymphocyte subsets and the development of different CT patterns of active TB and to discover differences in the immunological status and in the radiological patterns of TB presentation between patients of different geographic proveniences.MethodsThis observational study included 48 patients with TB and 48 sex- and age-matched patients affected by other bacterial CAP. The presence of HIV/AIDS, other immunocompromising conditions, and confounding chronic pulmonary comorbidities was excluded. Flow cytometry was performed on all the enrolled subjects at admission, before starting the appropriate antibiotic therapy. Patients with TB also underwent a computed tomography (CT) scan.ResultsPatients with TB showed a decrease in the absolute count of all the lymphocyte subsets compared to the CAP group. Only the reduction in the percentage of CD4+ T-lymphocytes was significant, while the percentage of CD8+ T-lymphocytes was significantly increased. Patients presenting exudative forms with atypical locations of TB showed a significant reduction in the absolute count and percentage of CD19+ B-lymphocytes compared to those affected by productive TB forms with the typical location. Despite being younger, our black Sub-Saharan Africans showed a significant reduction in the CD4+ T-lymphocytes compartment and a higher prevalence of atypical and exudative forms of TB compared with white Europeans.ConclusionTuberculosis itself may alter peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets compared to other CAP. An impaired CD19+ B-lymphocyte compartment may result in an abnormal exudative response in atypical locations and a suboptimal bacterial control. Other constitutive or environmental causes may influence immunological differences found in patients with TB, particularly in case of different geographic origins. Anyhow, flow cytometry may be of great value in evaluating the immune function of these patients.