BackgroundAbdominal tuberculosis (TB) is an uncommon form of infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Korea. In this study, we aimed to highlight the clinical features, diagnostic methods, and outcomes of abdominal TB over 12 years in Southeastern Korea.MethodsA total of 139 patients diagnosed as having abdominal TB who received anti-TB medication from January 2005 to June 2016 were reviewed. Among them, 69 patients (49.6%) had luminal TB, 28 (20.1%) had peritoneal TB, 7 (5.0%) had nodal TB, 23 (16.5%) had visceral TB, and 12 (8.6%) had mixed TB.ResultsThe most frequent symptoms were abdominal pain (34.5%) and abdominal distension (21.0%). Diagnosis of abdominal TB was confirmed using microbiologic and/or histologic methods in 76 patients (confirmed diagnosis), while the remaining 63 patients were diagnosed based on clinical presentation and radiologic imaging (clinical diagnosis). According to diagnostic method, frequency of clinical diagnosis was highest in patients with luminal (50.7%) or peritoneal (64.3%) TB, while frequency of microscopic diagnosis was highest in patients with visceral TB (68.2%), and frequency of histologic diagnosis was highest in patients with nodal TB (85.2%). Interestingly, most patients, except those with nodal TB, showed a good response to anti-TB agents, with 84.2% showing a complete response. The mortality rate was only 1.4% in the present study.ConclusionsMost patients responded very well to anti-TB therapy, and surgery was required in only a minority of cases of suspected abdominal TB.

Background: There is currently no evidence that hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype affects survival in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This study aimed to investigate whether the HCV genotype affected the survival rate of patients with HCV-related HCC. Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study using the data of patients with HCV-related HCC evaluated at two centers in Korea between January 2005 and December 2016. Propensity score matching between genotype 2 patients and non-genotype 2 patients was performed to reduce bias. Results: A total of 180 patients were enrolled. Of these, 86, 78, and 16 had genotype 1, genotype 2, and genotype 3 HCV-related HCC, respectively. The median age was 66.0 years, and the median overall survival was 28.6 months. In the entire cohort, patients with genotype 2 had a longer median overall survival (31.7 months) than patients with genotype 1 (28.7 months; P = 0.004) or genotype 3 (15.0 months; P = 0.003). In the propensity score-matched cohort, genotype 2 patients also showed a better survival rate than non-genotype 2 patients (P = 0.007). Genotype 2 patients also had a longer median decompensation-free survival than non-genotype 2 patients (P = 0.001). However, there was no significant difference in recurrence-free survival between genotype 2 and non-genotype 2 patients who underwent curative treatment (P = 0.077). In multivariate Cox regression analysis, non-genotype 2 (hazard ratio, 2.19; 95% confidence interval, 1.29-3.71) remained an independent risk factor for death. Conclusion: Among patients with HCV-related HCC, those with genotype 2 have better survival.