Pulmonary Tuberculosis

Abstract

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease, currently the top cause of infectious death from a single pathogen worldwide. Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the impact of clinical and radiological presentations of pulmonary TB on mortality. Materials and Methods: This retrospective case series study was performed on 215 patients (120 females and 95 males) using the recorded files of patients who were registered as pulmonary TB at the Chest and Respiratory Disease Center in Erbil, Iraq. Recorded files were studied from January 2018 to December 2019. Results: The mean age ± SD of the patients was 44.03 ± 21.57 years (ranged from 1 to 91 years), and female to male ratio was of 1.16:1. The right lung [97 (45.1%)] and upper zones [148 (68.8%)] were involved more frequently than other zones. Infiltration [120 (56%)] was the most common lung lesion. Clinical symptoms such as hemoptysis, weight loss, night sweat, shortness of breath, and chest pain were associated with a statistically significant increase in mortality. The right upper zones were affected more than other zones, and its involvement was statically significant. The involvement of both lungs had significant higher mortality [9 (25.7%)] than a single lung involvement [right lung: 2 (2.1%) versus left lung: 3 (3.9%)]; P value was <0.0001. The lower lung zone involvement has higher mortality [7 (19.4%)], and the type of lung lesion such as miliary distribution and cavitation has higher mortality, 2 (100%) and 3 (14.3%), respectively; P value was <0.016. Conclusion: Poor predictors of the outcome of pulmonary TB include clinical (hemoptysis, weight loss, night sweat, shortness of breath, and chest pain) and radiological (both lung involvement, upper zones especially the right upper zone, miliary distribution, and cavitation) presentations.