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.
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.
Non-tuberculous mycobacterial infection (NMI) occurs in elderly women with no pre-existing lung disease, and this has been termed the Lady Windermere syndrome. NMIs are increasing in prevalence and an increasing number of pulmonary mycobacterial infections is due to non-tuberculous mycobacteria. The diagnosis is often difficult because the organism is not readily isolated or cultured, and the condition may not be considered by the radiologist. We report NMI in a 64-year-old woman, based on clinical and radiological findings. Although termed the Lady Windermere syndrome, the name does not correspond to the character in Oscar Wilde's play; hence the eponym is not widely used.
Tuberculosis (TB) remains an important cause of mortality and morbidity. The TB vaccine, BCG, is not fully protective against the adult form of the disease and is unable to prevent its transmission although it is still useful against severe childhood TB. Hence, the search for new vaccines is of great interest. In a previous study, we have shown that proteoliposomes obtained from Mycobacterium smegmatis (PLMs) induced cross reactive humoral and cellular response against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) antigens. With the objective to evaluate the protective capability of PLMs, a murine model of progressive pulmonary TB was used. Animals immunized with PLMs with and without alum (PLMs/PLMsAL respectively) showed protection compared to non-immunized animals. Mice immunized with PLMsAL induced similar protection as that of BCG. Animals immunized with BCG, PLMs and PLMsAL showed a significant decrease in tissue damage (percentage of pneumonic area/lung) compared to non-immunized animals, with a more prominent effect in BCG vaccinated mice. The protective effect of the administration of PLMs in mice supports its future evaluation as experimental vaccine candidate against Mtb.