Miliary tuberculosis: Clinical manifestations, diagnosis and outcome in 38 adults

Abstract

Miliary infiltrates on chest X-ray or FUO should raise the possibility of miliary TB. Therapy should be administered urgently to prevent an otherwise fatal outcome.

Disseminated Tuberculosis among Adult Patients Admitted to Hamad General Hospital, Qatar: A Five Year Hospital Based Study

“…Most of our patients, 88 (80%), were less than 45 years old. The mean age of the population in this study (31.3±12.2 years) was younger than that mentioned in other reports, [6][7][8][9][10] but similar to that found in two hospital-based studies in Iran and Philippine [11,12].…”

“…Therefore the diagnosis of this disease is generally difficult and usually there is a delay in seeking medical help for more than one month by more than 50% of patients. This delay was noted here in addition to several other reports [2,[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. Fever was the most common presenting symptom in many studies [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] as well as in our series.…”

“…This delay was noted here in addition to several other reports [2,[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. Fever was the most common presenting symptom in many studies [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] as well as in our series. Disseminated TB can involve many organs, with the lungs being the commonly involved [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12].…”

“…Skin testing is frequently unreliable and of no help in excluding or confirming the disease. Miliary infiltrates (on chest radiograph or CT) were present in 77 (77%) of our patients, which falls within the range of 29-89% reported in different studies [2,3,[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12].…”

“…Fever was the most common presenting symptom in many studies [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] as well as in our series. Disseminated TB can involve many organs, with the lungs being the commonly involved [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. The lungs were involved most frequently in our study, followed by meninges.…”