Publication:

Prevalence and morphological patterns of tuberculosis in various organs

Background Tuberculosis (TB) is a common and often deadly infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis in humans. A third of the world's population is thought to be infected with M. tuberculosis and new infections occur at a rate of about one per second. The present study aimed to study the prevalence of TB in various organs.

Methods This was both prospective and retrospective study and a total of 14,472 patients of all ages and both the sexes were included in the study. All prospective cases during this period and retrospective cases of past one year i.e. total of 14,472 cases were included in the study. Data was entered in MS-Excel sheet and statistical analysis was done.

Results Out of 14,472 patients maximum number of cases received in the department were of female genital tract (FGT) infections 3634 (25.11%) followed by gastrointestinal tract (GIT) 2246 (15.51%) and then reticuloendothelial system (RES) 1807 (12.48%). 9471 (65.44%) cases were observed with non-neoplastic lesions and 5001 (34.56%) with neoplastic lesions. The number of inflammatory and tubercular cases with non-neoplastic lesions was 4338. Out of 4338 inflammatory cases, 284 cases were reported with TB in various systems. The maximum cases 86 (30.28%) were seen in the third decade followed by fourth decade 55 (19.36%). Youngest patient was 2 year old while the oldest was 80 years old. Incidence of TB was low in 6th and 7th decade of life.

Conclusions The incidence of pulmonary and extrapulmonary TB in our study population was significantly high. Hence further investigation was required to determine a proper diagnostic approach of its morphological pattern so that accurate treatment can be opted.