Profile of Extra-Pulmonary Tuberculosis in Internal Medicine

Abstract

Introduction: Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that mainly affects the lung. Extrapulmonary localizations are a reason for hospitalization in our health facilities. The objective of this study was to describe the epidemiological, clinical, paraclinical and evolutionary aspects of extra pulmonary tuberculosis (EPT) at the Abass Ndao Hospital Center. Patients and Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted over a period of 11 years (January 1, 2010 to December 30, 2021). All patients with extrapulmonary tuberculosis hospitalized in the department of internal medicine during the recruitment period were included. Results: Fifty-two (52) patients were collected. The year 2019 recorded the most cases 23.08% (n = 20). The mean age of the patients was 40.56 ± 18.24 years. The age group 20 - 34 years 42.31% (n = 22) was the most represented. Females were in the majority 61.54% (n = 32) with a sex ratio (M/F) was 0.63. Housewives were in the majority 40.38% (n = 21). 60.87% of the cases (n = 14) came from a health facility. 38.46% of the cases had been infected. 21.74% (n = 9) were smokers. The reasons for consultation were dominated by fever (67.44%), AEG (62.79%) and cough (41.86%). Eighteen patients (40.91%) had fever. The mean time to consultation was 77.37 ± 90.3 days with extremes of 3 and 365 days. The median was 45 days. More than half of the patients 61.90% (n = 26) had anemia. Positive retroviral serology was noted in 21.43% of cases. All patients had a CRP greater than 6. More than half of the patients 51.92% (n = 27) had multifocal tuberculosis. The peritoneum 44.23% (n = 23) was the main organ affected. The average hospital stay was 9.8 ± 4.9 days with extremes of 1 and 19 days. All patients had received the protocol in force at the national level. Death was noted in 4 patients (9.52%). Conclusion: EPT is characterized in our context by a notorious diagnostic difficulty due to the multiplicity of clinical presentations, the complexity of explorations, and the problems of differential diagnosis notably with other granulomatosis, systemic lupus and cancers. This difficulty is reflected in the low rate of diagnosis with a paraclinical argument of certainty and in the long diagnostic delays.