Clinical Presentation in a Series of Eight Children with Abdominal Tuberculosis: Experience of a Single-Center in Turkey

Abstract

Background: Abdominal tuberculosis, the sixth commonest extrapulmanory tuberculosis, is easily misdiagnosed due to nonspecific gastrointestinal symptoms. The diagnosis is highly dependent on clinician's suspicion of the disease; therefore to increase awareness we retrospectively reviewed clinical features of eight children in a four year-period. Methods: The medical records of children with abdominal TB were retrospectively reviewed. The diagnosis of abdominal TB was defined as Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection of gastrointestinal tract along with peritoneal or solid organ involvement.

Pediatric Extrapulmonary Tuberculosis, One Center Six Years Experience

“…Akciğer tüberkülozu olan olguların %3.5'unda, abdominal TB olgularının %31-58'i periton TB'udur (12) . Çocuklarda erişkinlerden daha az sıklıkta görülmektedir (13) . On dört yaş altı çocuklarda TB peritoniti, tüberküloz tanısı alan çocuk hastaları arasında %5 olarak görülürken (14) , Birleşik Devletler'de 20 yaş altı görülme oranı %0,3 olarak bildirilmiştir (13) .…”

“…Çocuklarda erişkinlerden daha az sıklıkta görülmektedir (13) . On dört yaş altı çocuklarda TB peritoniti, tüberküloz tanısı alan çocuk hastaları arasında %5 olarak görülürken (14) , Birleşik Devletler'de 20 yaş altı görülme oranı %0,3 olarak bildirilmiştir (13) . Türkiye 2016 yılı verilerinde ise toplam 241 olguda (%5) periton TB saptanmıştır (2) .…”

Multimodal imaging of fibrosing mesenteric tuberculosis

“…Risk factors for abdominal tuberculosis are immune compromised status, HIV, diabetes mellitus, peritoneal dialysis, and immigrants from high prevalence areas of tuberculosis. Abdominal TB is more common between 25- and 45-year-old age groups and rare in the pediatric population and under the age of 20 as less as 1% [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9]. Abdominal TB specifically peritoneal TB is often masquerading as inflammatory bowel disease, malignancy, or other infective conditions.…”

Tuberculous peritonitis in children: Two case reports highlighting the important role of imaging

“…Within the small subset of pediatric cases, peritoneal involvement is more common than gastrointestinal, with the most frequent presentation being that of abdominal pain, distention, and fever. It has been reported that the incidence of peritoneal TB in children under the age of 20 in the United States is as little as 0.3% [7] . In this article, we present 2 pediatric cases of peritoneal TB with insidious onset of symptoms in which the radiographic findings acted as key components in establishing the final diagnosis.…”