Splenic tuberculosis in a patient with newly diagnosed advanced HIV infection

Abstract

The extra-pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) constitutes to about 20% of all TB cases. Among extra-pulmonary form, splenic TB is very rare clinical condition especially as initial manifestation in a developed country. Diagnosis of splenic TB is challenging because it presents no specific symptoms or typical imaging findings and microbiological confirmation is not straight forward. We describe the case of a 55 year old Italian female with advanced HIV infection whose first AIDS clinical manifestation was a TB splenic abscess.On CT, the lesion was multilocular, hypovascular, 34 mm large, and presented contrast enhancement and a spoke wheel pattern; it was initially considered a cystic formation of parasitic nature. In this patient clinical manifestations were nonspecific (nightly fever, weight loss, and fatigue); as diagnostic imaging could not pinpoint the underlying etiology, microbiological and molecular examinations of spleen abscess drainage proved pivotal for the diagnosis. The patient improved clinically with antitubercular therapy. The rarityof splenic tuberculosis in an European patient coupled with the involvement of the spleen in isolation and outside the "miliary" setting prompted us to report this case.

Keywords: HIV infections; Molecular assays; Splenic tuberculosis.

Fig. 1

(a) TB splenic abscess appearance on a noncontrast CT. (b) TB splenic abscess on abdominal MRI.

Fig. 2

Ziehl-Neelsen stain of splenic aspirated material.