MyMedR

The role of fiberoptic bronchoscopy for rapid diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis was examined among 74 patients who were suspected of having the disease but had negative sputum smear for acid fast bacilli. Bronchial brushing and washing were routinely performed in all subjects and bronchial biopsy was performed on abnormal mucosa in 7 of them. The diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis was confirmed in 44.6% of the patients studied from smear examination, culture, histology or the combination of them. Rapid diagnosis was achieved in 54.5% of the confirmed cases from smear or histology within a few days of examination. Two of the cases had concomitant bronchogenic carcinoma. We conclude that the fiberoptic bronchoscopy is a useful investigation for this group of patients as confirmation of the diagnosis can be made fairly rapidly in a significant proportion of them, hence the treatment can be started confidently.

Matched MeSH terms: Tuberculosis, Pulmonary/diagnosis*

Fulltext Fibreoptic bronchoscopy in the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis--a Malaysian experience

Jalleh RD, Kuppusamy I, Parameswary V, Yeow CS

Singapore Med J, 1993 Feb;34(1):55-7.

PMID: 8266131

We report our experience on the use of fibreoptic bronchoscopy in the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis. The case records of 1,274 patients who underwent fibreoptic bronchoscopy at the National Tuberculosis Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia during a three-year period were reviewed. In 120 of them the final diagnosis was tuberculosis. Bronchoscopy confirmed the diagnosis in 37 patients (30.8%). This was achieved by bronchial aspiration for culture in 26 patients (70.3%) and bronchial biopsy for histopathology in 11 patients (29.7%). It was the exclusive method of confirmation in 16 patients (13.3%). Sputum culture was positive in 62 patients (51.7%) including 41 patients (34.2%) in whom bronchoscopy was unhelpful. Six patients had diagnosis confirmed by other means while in 36 others (30%) it was based on clinical features and supportive basic investigations. There were no complications noted. We conclude that while sputum examination remains the mainstay for diagnosing pulmonary tuberculosis, fibreoptic bronchoscopy serves as a safe and useful adjunct.

Matched MeSH terms: Tuberculosis, Pulmonary/diagnosis*

Fulltext Case-finding for pulmonary tuberculosis in Penang

Hooi LN

Med J Malaysia, 1994 Sep;49(3):223-30.

PMID: 7845270

The process of case-finding was studied in 100 consecutive patients with pulmonary tuberculosis treated by the Chest Clinic, Penang Hospital. The median time from the onset of the illness until the initial medical consultation was two weeks (patient's delay). This delay was longer in males, patients with lower than secondary education and drug abusers. Only 47% of patients were put on treatment with a correct diagnosis within one month of the first consultation (doctor's delay). Almost all patients had at least one symptom suggestive of tuberculosis at presentation and the mean number of consultations before diagnosis was three. Patients who first visited government medical facilities had shorter doctor's delay than those who first saw private practitioners, and patients who first consulted a private practitioner were the least likely to be appropriately investigated by sputum examination and chest radiography. The median total delay was three months and at the time of diagnosis, 95% of patients had moderate or far advanced disease radiologically. In order to shorten doctor's delay, all medical practitioners, especially those in the private sector, should be made aware of the importance of early diagnosis and the proper management of tuberculosis. Health education campaigns for the public should also be undertaken to shorten patient's delay.
Study site: Chest clinic, Hospital Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

Matched MeSH terms: Tuberculosis, Pulmonary/diagnosis*

Delay in the diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis in patients attending a university teaching hospital

Liam CK, Tang BG

Int J Tuberc Lung Dis, 1997 Aug;1(4):326-32.

PMID: 9432388

University Hospital, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Matched MeSH terms: Tuberculosis, Pulmonary/diagnosis*

Tuberculoid granulomatous lesion of the pharynx--review of the literature

Sharma HS, Kurl DN, Kamal MZ

Auris Nasus Larynx, 1998 May;25(2):187-91.

PMID: 9673733

Pharyngeal involvement in tuberculosis is rare and is usually secondary to pulmonary tuberculosis. We report a very rare case of chronic granulomatous pharyngitis, which later turned out to be due to primary tuberculosis of the pharynx. The clinical presentation, diagnosis, treatment and complications of this rare clinical entity are presented.

Matched MeSH terms: Tuberculosis, Pulmonary/diagnosis

Fulltext Tuberculosis--are we missing the diagnosis?

Ismail Y

Singapore Med J, 2002 Apr;43(4):172-6.

PMID: 12188060

We reviewed the 52 new cases of pulmonary tuberculosis diagnosed at Pusat Pakar Utara, Kedah in 1998. It was found that the majority of the patients had symptoms for many years. They had seen many doctors but were not diagnosed. In 40% of the patients, no investigations for tuberculosis were done and in the others tuberculosis was excluded because of negative sputum smear examination. Many had typical history and X-ray changes suggestive of tuberculosis but more sensitive investigations such as sputum culture for Mycobacterium or bronchoscopy were not performed. Cases are presented to illustrate the problems in the diagnosis.

Matched MeSH terms: Tuberculosis, Pulmonary/diagnosis*

The causes of haemoptysis in malaysian patients aged over 60 and the diagnostic yield of different investigations

Wong CM, Lim KH, Liam CK

Respirology, 2003 Mar;8(1):65-8.

PMID: 12856744

OBJECTIVE: In southeast Asia, pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) is the most frequently presumed diagnosis for haemoptysis. This study was designed to assess the causes of haemoptysis, the diagnostic yield of causes in different diagnostic modalities and the distribution of older patients.

METHODS: All patients presenting to the University of Malaya Medical Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with haemoptysis were recruited prospectively and evaluated.

RESULTS: One hundred and sixty patients were evaluated for haemoptysis; 71 (44.4%) were aged 60 years or more. Significantly more patients smoked in the older age group (P = 0.002). The main causes of haemoptysis in the older patients were bronchogenic carcinoma (49.3%), pneumonia (11.3%), bronchiectasis (8.6%), cryptogenic (5.6%) and active TB (4.2%). Significantly more older patients had carcinoma (P < 0.001), while the younger patients more often had TB (P < 0.001). Chest pain was significantly more common in the older patients (P = 0.025), particularly in patients with carcinoma. Bronchoscopy alone or combined with CT of the thorax was significantly more diagnostic in the older patient (P = 0.006).

CONCLUSION: Bronchogenic carcinoma is the commonest cause of haemoptysis in patients aged 60 years and above. Presumptive anti-TB therapy should not be encouraged despite the regional high prevalence of TB.

Matched MeSH terms: Tuberculosis, Pulmonary/diagnosis

Fulltext Pulmonary tuberculosis--a review of clinical features and diagnosis in 232 cases

Ismail Y

Med J Malaysia, 2004 Mar;59(1):56-64.

PMID: 15535337

The diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis is often delayed due to atypical clinical features and difficulty in obtaining positive bacteriology. We reviewed 232 cases of pulmonary tuberculosis diagnosed in Kedah Medical Centre, Alor Setar from January 1998 to December 2002. All age groups were affected with a male predominance (Male:Female ratio = 60:40). Risk factors include underlying diabetes mellitus (17.7%), positive family history (16.8%) and previous tuberculosis (5.2%). Nearly half (45.3%) of patients had symptoms for more than one year. Only 22% of patients had typical symptoms of tuberculosis (prolonged recurrent fever, cough, anorexia and weight loss), whilst others presented with haemoptysis, chronic cough, COPD, bronchiectasis, general ill-health, pyrexia of unknown origin or pleural effusion without other systemic symptoms. Fifteen percent of the patients presented with extrapulmonary diagnosis. Ninety percent of the patients had previous medical consultations but 40% had no chest radiograph or sputum examination done. The chest radiographs showed 'typical' changes of tuberculosis in 62% while in the other 38% the radiological features were 'not typical'. Sputum direct smear was positive for acid-fast bacilli in only 22.8% of patients and 11.2% were diagnosed base on positive sputum culture. Sputum may be negative even in patients with typical clinical presentations and chest radiograph changes. Bronchial washing improved the diagnosis rate being positive in 49.1% of cases (24.1% by direct smear and the other 25.0% by culture). In 16.8% of cases, the diagnosis was based on a good response to empirical anti-tuberculosis therapy in patients with clinical and radiological features characteristic of tuberculosis. In conclusions, the clinical and radiological manifestations of pulmonary tuberculosis may be atypical. Sputum is often negative and bronchoscopy with washings for Mycobacterium culture gives a higher yield for diagnosis. In highly probable cases, empirical therapy with antituberculosis drugs should be considered because it is safe and beneficial.

Matched MeSH terms: Tuberculosis, Pulmonary/diagnosis*

Characteristics of HIV-infected tuberculosis patients in Kota Bharu Hospital, Kelantan from 1998 to 2001

Mohammad Z, Naing NN

Southeast Asian J. Trop. Med. Public Health, 2004 Mar;35(1):140-3.

PMID: 15272757

To characterize the demographic profiles, clinical features, radiological patterns and outcomes of treatment of HIV-infected TB patients, a descriptive study was carried out on 149 HIV-infected TB cases diagnosed from 1998 through 2001 at Kota Bharu Hospital, Kelantan, Malaysia. The majority of the patients were males (94.6%), single (45.0%), ethnic Malay (94.0%) with a mean age of 34 years (standard deviation 7.8, range 18-76). The most common HIV transmission category was through injecting drug use (73.8%) and being the inmates or former inhabitants of drug rehabilitation centers and prisons were the commonest high-risk groups. One hundred and seventeen patients were diagnosed as having pulmonary TB, while about 20% were extra-pulmonary in type with 9 cases of milliary TB. The majority (45%) presented with cough symptoms while only 51% had a positive sputum smear. Fifty-five percent were found to have pulmonary lesions on chest x-ray, such as localized, milliary or diffuse pulmonary infiltrates, or opacities. Eight (5.4%) had pleural lesions while another 8 cases had hilar or mediastinal lymph node lesions. Overall, fifty-eight (38.9%) patients had died by the completion of data collection. The median weeks or survival from the time of starting TB treatment was 13.5 (range 1-56) and the majority of them (74%) died without completing the 6-month regime of treatment.

Matched MeSH terms: Tuberculosis, Pulmonary/diagnosis*

Fulltext Pulmonary disease empirically treated as tuberculosis-a retrospective study of 107 cases

Loh LC, Abdul Samah SZ, Zainudin A, Wong GLS, Gan WH, Yusuf WS, et al.

Med J Malaysia, 2005 Mar;60(1):62-70.

PMID: 16250282

Pulmonary disease is sometimes treated empirically as tuberculosis (TB) in the absence of microbial confirmation if the clinical suspicion of active TB is high. In a country of relatively high TB and low HIV burden, we retrospectively studied 107 patients (69.2% male; mean age (SD): 45 (17) years) who received empirical anti-TB treatment for intrapulmonary opacities or pleural effusions suspected of active TB in our hospitals between 1998 and 2002. The diagnosis of definite or probable 'smear-negative' pulmonary TB was made based on treatment outcome at two months with rifampicin, isoniazid, pyrazinamide and ethambutol (or streptomycin). At this end-point, 81 patients (84.4%) had both clinical and radiological improvement (definite cases), 12 (12.5%) had clinical improvement alone and 3 (3.1%) had radiological improvement alone (probable cases). Confirmation of acid-fast bacilli was subsequently obtained in 12 patients (all definite cases) from culture of initial pulmonary specimens. Eleven patients (10.5%) were diagnosed as 'non-TB' based on absence of both clinical and radiological improvement or discovery of another cause for the pulmonary condition at or before this two-month study end-point. In the 'non-TB' group, 2 had carcinoma, 2 had HIV-related pulmonary diseases, 1 had bronchiectasis, while in 6 causes were indeterminate. Six (6.3%) and 3 (27.3%) patients reported adverse effects from anti-TB drugs from the 'TB' and 'non-TB' groups respectively. Our findings suggest that empirical anti-TB treatment is an acceptable practice if clinical suspicion is high in patients coming in our region.

Matched MeSH terms: Tuberculosis, Pulmonary/diagnosis*

Fulltext Clinical analysis of foreign-born patients with tuberculosis found in Malaysia

Nissapatorn V, Kuppusamy I, Wan-Yusoff WS, Anuar AK

Southeast Asian J. Trop. Med. Public Health, 2005 May;36(3):713-21.

PMID: 16124444

In this retrospective study, we investigated 263 foreign patients who were diagnosed as having tuberculosis at the National Tuberculosis Center (NTBC) from January 2001 to December 2002. The age range was 14-72 years, with a mean of 33.3 +/- 9.95 years. The study subjects were predominantly males (60%) and females comprised 40%, where the greater impact of tuberculosis was observed in the young and active ones (up to 34 years of age), than middle-age (up to 54). A significantly higher percentage of these patients were from the Southeast Asian countries (87%) and particularly occurred in single male (47.5%) and married female (71.4%) patients (p<0.05). We also found that tuberculosis was significantly higher in female (50.5%) and male (64%) with smoking laborers (p<0.05). Fever (70%), cough (90.5%) and BCG vaccination status showed a significantly higher percentage in male patients (p<0.05), whereas lymphadenopathy (22%) was found in a significantly higher percentage in females (p<0.05). Overall, pulmonary disease (94.3%) occurred more commonly in males and the pleura (3.2%) was the most common site of disseminated tuberculosis. By contrast, the lymph node (11.4%) and miliary (4.8%) forms were the more common extrapulmonary tuberculosis in females. More males had higher percentage of treatment completed at > or = 6 (38%) and > or = 9 (13.3%) months in pulmonary tuberculosis, whilst, more females showed higher percentage of treatment completed (8.7%) in extrapulmonary tuberculosis. Surprisingly, more women showed non-compliance to the anti-tubercular therapy than their counterpart in this study.

Matched MeSH terms: Tuberculosis, Pulmonary/diagnosis

Fulltext "Discovery to treatment" window in patients with smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis

Loh LC, Codati A, Jamil M, Noor ZM, Vijayasingham P

Med J Malaysia, 2005 Aug;60(3):314-9.

PMID: 16379186

Delay in commencing treatment in patients diagnosed with smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) may promote the spread of PTB in the community. Socio-demographic and clinical data from 169 patients (119 retrospectively and 50 prospectively collected) treated for smear-positive PTB in our hospital Chest Clinic from June 2002 to February 2003 were analysed. One hundred and fifty eight (93.5%) patients were started on treatment in less than 7 days from the time when the report first became available while 11 (6.5%) patients had their treatment started > or = 7 days. The median 'discovery to treatment' window was 1 day (range, 0 to 24 days). Of the factors studied, longevity of symptoms, absence of fever or night sweats and having sought traditional medicine were associated with delay in treatment commencement. The urgency and importance of anti-TB treatment should be emphasized especially to patients who are inclined towards treatment with traditional medicine.
Keywords: Smear positive, pulmonary tuberculosis, treatment delay, traditional medicine, Malaysia, Seremban, Negeri Sembilan

Matched MeSH terms: Tuberculosis, Pulmonary/diagnosis*

Near miss diagnosis of childhood tuberculosis

Norlijah O, Intan HI, Feizel AM, Kasim MS, Noh LM

Southeast Asian J. Trop. Med. Public Health, 2006 Sep;37(5):953-7.

PMID: 17333739

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a public health problem in Malaysia. We describe three atypical cases of serious tuberculosis in children. The potential diagnostic pitfall in these cases is highlighted by its unusual presentation in a setting of culture-negative infection. A positive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in each case assists in gauging the diagnosis in concordance with appropriate clinical findings.

Matched MeSH terms: Tuberculosis, Pulmonary/diagnosis*

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