Clinical and laboratory features of intestinal tuberculosis - Video Abstract 154235

Video abstract of original research paper “Clinical and laboratory features of intestinal tuberculosis” published in the open access journal Clinical and Experimental Gastroenterology by authors Patel and Yagnik.
Background/aims: As increasing numbers of Crohn’s disease (CD) cases are being recognized
in India, so the differential diagnosis of CD and gastrointestinal tuberculosis (GITB) is becoming
increasingly important. If patients are misdiagnosed with GITB, toxicity may result from
unnecessary anti-TB therapy and treatment of the primary disease (ie, CD) gets delayed. We
therefore aimed to assess the accuracy of various parameters that can be used to predict GITB
diagnosis at index evaluation.
Materials and methods: This was a prospective, unicentric, observational study carried out
in the gastroenterology department of a tertiary care hospital between August 2011 and January
2013. Patients who presented to our hospital and were suspected of having GITB were included
in our study. Patients were then followed up over a 6-month period.
Statistical analysis: Chi-square test was used to analyze the data.
Results: Of the 69 patients with GITB, 49 (71.01%) had thickening of the involved part of
the colon and 33 (47.83%) had abdominal lymphadenopathy. The ileocecal valve was involved
in 58 patients (84.05%) Histological detection of granulomas had 78.95% specificity, 36.23%
sensitivity, and 51.40% accuracy. Tuberculosis polymerase chain reaction was found to have
78.95% specificity, 71.01% sensitivity, and 73.83% accuracy. BACTEC-MGIT culture was
found to have 100% specificity, 20.29% sensitivity, and 48.60% accuracy.
Conclusion: Although histology is helpful in ruling out other conditions, TB-specific findings
such as caseating granuloma and acid-fast bacilli are rarely seen. Instead, tuberculosis polymerase
chain reaction has the highest diagnostic accuracy followed by BACTEC culture.

Read the original research paper here https://www.dovepress.com/clinical-an...