The diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis is often delayed due to atypical clinical features and difficulty in obtaining positive bacteriology. We reviewed 232 cases of pulmonary tuberculosis diagnosed in Kedah Medical Centre, Alor Setar from January 1998 to December 2002. All age groups were affected with a male predominance (Male:Female ratio = 60:40). Risk factors include underlying diabetes m...

Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is a life-threatening disorder characterized by excessive activation of the immune system leading to tissue damage and organ dysfunction. We present case HLH Like initial presentation secondary extrapulmonary tuberculosis (TB) in young male who presented with fever, constitutional symptoms generalized lymphadenopathy. Initial this there were no much evid...

Spinal tuberculosis in its classical form (i.e., “two-vertebra disease with the destruction of the intervening intervertebral disc and a paravertebral or psoas abscess”) is easily recognized and readily treated [1] in areas where tuberculosis is endemic [2-4]. Atypical spinal tuberculosis without the aforementioned clinical or radiographic features [5], although occurring less frequently [6], h...

Despite the World Health Organization's declaration that the spread of tuberculosis is a global emergency and despite the implementation of strong tuberculosis-control initiatives, this highly infectious disease continues to affect all vulnerable populations, including the elderly population (age > or =65 years). Tuberculosis in aging adults remains a clinical and epidemiological challenge. Aty...

An artificial neural network (ANN) was trained to distinguish between Mycobacterium tuberculosis and M. bovis with averaged pyrolysis mass spectra from duplicate subcultures of four strains of each of these species, each pyrolysed in triplicate. Once trained, the ANN was interrogated with spectrum data from the original organisms (the "training set") and from 26 other mycobacterial isolates (th...

The diagnosis of tuberculosis in immunocompromised hosts is often difficult as the hosts have atypical tuberculosis symptoms. The current study presents a case of scrofula and pulmonary tuberculosis with acute myelocytic leukemia (AML). As the disease became aggravated, the patient presented with fever, hemophagocytosis in the bone marrow, lymphadenopathy of the supraclavicular fossa, and media...

During five years, 6,879 patients underwent bronchoscopic study at the Mayo Clinic. Mycobacterial culhires were obtained from 4,120 (60 percent). Mycobacterial organisms (typical or atypical) other than Mycobacterium gordonae were isolated in 70/4,120 (1.7 percent) patients. During the same period, 209 patients had culture-proved M tuberculosis from various sources. Bronchoscopy was performed o...

Miliary tuberculosis is a potentially lethal form of tuberculosis resulting from massive lymphohaematogeneous dissemination of Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacilli. The emergence of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and widespread use of immunosuppressive drugs has changed the epidemiology of miliary tuberculosis. Impaired cell-mediated immunity underlies the disease's development. Clinical manifestations ar...

Genitourinary tuberculosis is one of the common forms of extrapulmonary tuberculosis. We report a case of atypical genitourinary tuberculosis: massive uterovaginal prolapse with cervical lesion mimicking cervical carcinoma. This particular case highlights the problem of healthcare in most of the developing countries. Lack of patient education, awareness, and access to a healthcare system result...

OBJECTIVES In this case report, we present a patient with ocular tuberculosis presenting with progressive unilateral corneal melting. PATIENT A 47-year-old female was admitted with melting at the inferior half of the peripheral cornea and inferior subconjunctival nodules. Biopsy material of the nodules was negative for tuberculosis bacillus. However, polymerase chain reaction of the biopsy sa...