[Tuberculosis or hepatic granulomatosis? (author's transl)]

Abstract

The authors report 43 observations of pulmonary or extra-pulmonary tuberculosis, bacteriologically proved, in which liver biopsies revealed more or less complete granulomatous lesions. The culture of 29 liver fragments on Löwenstein and Colestos medium enabled the identification of the tuberculous bacillum in only one case. In the other cases the hepatic lesion has only been related to the tuberculosis because of the clinical and bacteriological context. Therefore, besides exceptional cases where Koch bacillum is revealed in the liver parenchyma, it seems that granulomatosis can be considered a control for the delayed hypersensitivity reaction to the tuberculous antigens, and not to the tuberculous infection localized to liver.