Pattern of Tuberculosis in Elderly Patients in Egypt

Abstract

Background and study aim: Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the most prevalent and grave of all humanoid contagious diseases and is still a major infectious disease worldwide. The geriatric population in developed countries represents a big reservoir of tuberculosis infection across all racial and sex subsets. We aim in this study to assess the pattern of TB in elderly patients in Qena governorate in Egypt. Patients and methods: All patients aged 50 years and above who were diagnosed with TB have been included in the study. The patients were evaluated regarding the incidence rate: for new cases, and relapse cases (pulmonary and extra pulmonary). Results: The mean age of included patients was 41.18 years and 51.3% of the studied patients were male. Regarding residence we found 54.7% of patients live in rural areas and 45.3% in urban. 82.9% of the patients were tuberculin positive. As regard chest x-ray finding we found: normal in 17.1% of patients, 17.1% bilateral, 25.6% right upper lobe 16.2% whole right lung, 10.3% left upper lobe, 6% left lower lobe, 3.4% right lower lobe, 2.6% pleural effusion and 1.7% whole left lung. In the present study we found that 81.2% of patients had pulmonary TB and 18.8% had extra pulmonary TB. Conclusion: The study documents important variances in clinical and radiological findings of pulmonary TB in geriatric patients. Sputum analysis for AFB remains a significant, easy and cheap method for diagnosis, but might not be continuously supportive in early diagnosis.

Complying with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals: A case of the Malaysian ageing population

“…Thus, a Chi-Square test (χ2 -test of independence) was employed to compare the difference between subgroups. A p-value of less than 0.05 was statistically significant (Moore, Notz & Flinger, 2013;Ghweil et al, 2018). Factor analysis was performed using the principal component analysis method to evaluate construct validity.…”

“…From a medical perspective, older people have an increased risk of vulnerability to infectious diseases predominantly related to the respiratory tract and suffer greater morbidity and a higher risk of mortality (Byng-Maddick & Noursadeghi, 2016;Zhang et al, 2019). In fact, TB notification rates are progressively evident among older people, especially amongst those aged 65 years and older (Negin et al, 2015;Ghweil, Alsenbsy, Badawy, Abdelkarem, & Helal, 2018;Ku & Dodd, 2019). The increasing burden of TB among ageing populations is mainly driven by age-related health changes (i.e., deterioration of the immune system and physical constraints).…”

Capacidade funcional e fragilidade de idosos com sequela de tuberculose pulmonar

“…No Brasil, a transição demográfica e epidemiológica ocorre de forma atípica, caracterizando-se tanto pela reemergência ou presença constante das doenças infecciosas e parasitárias quanto pela maior prevalência de doenças e agravos crônicos não transmissíveis 6 . Neste sentido, os idosos, em virtude do processo de senescência dos sistemas biológicos, como o imunológico e respiratório, encontram-se frequentemente mais vulneráveis à ação do M. tuberculosis, tanto à infecção exógena quanto para a reativação de focos contendo bacilos em estado de latência 7 . Além disso, essa população tem grande probabilidade de apresentar sequelas da TB pulmonar caso tenha sofrido exposição durante a infância, período no qual a prevalência da doença era alta e os esquemas terapêuticos menos eficazes 8 .…”