Disseminated tuberculosis. A study of 62 cases

Abstract

Sixty-two cases of disseminated tuberculosis seen over a 6-year period in a large teaching hospital are reviewed. The commonest symptoms were cough, loss of weight and appetite, fever and general malaise. Headache, when present, was highly specific for meningeal involvement. Pyrexia, hepatomegaly, evidence of weight loss and adventitious chest sounds were the commonest physical signs. Hyponatraemia, hypo-albuminaemia and abnormal liver function were common. Severe haematological abnormalities were not present in any of the patients. The best diagnostic sources were sputum, bronchial brushings and biopsies of liver and bone marrow. Forty patients (64%) died, 31 deaths being directly attributable to disseminated tuberculosis. Twenty-five patients had associated diseases. More female patients and Black patients died than did males, Whites or Coloureds (mixed race). The duration of symptoms prior to admission was, in general, long in comparison with the interval between admission and death. We should like to re-emphasize the need to consider disseminated tuberculosis early in the differential diagnosis of a wasting pyrexial illness with chest symptoms and signs, even in the absence of a miliary or miliary-like chest radiograph.