Radiological Findings in the Diagnosis of Pulmonary Tuberculosis

Abstract

Introduction:Pulmonary tuberculosis is a contagious bacterial disease that causes high morbidity and mortality in the world, which produces non-specific symptoms, making its diagnosis difficult. For this, it is necessary to correlate clinical data with laboratory tests and imaging tests, which range from to serve to confirm or rule out the pathology and to classify it according to its pathophysiology. For better study, it is classified pathophysiologically into primary and post-primary tuberculosis depending on the time of exposure to the causal agent. The imaging tests most frequently used are chest x-rays and tomography, providing images suggestive of the presence of the disease, expressed in different ways in relation to its stage. Goal: Identify the prevalent radiological findings in pulmonary tuberculosis through a bibliographic review in the last 5 years in the Pubmed database, which allows the doctor to distinguish this condition in an effective way through this update. Conclusion: The imaging tools most used for the diagnosis of this pathology are chest x-ray and chest tomography, with tomography being the study with the greatest sensitivity and specificity, but in our environment due to the high cost and low economic level of the population, it is used less frequently. The chest x-ray, although it has less specificity, is essential in the diagnosis of TB, where depending on the radiological findings observed, it can be established at what stage of the disease the patient is experiencing.