Tuberculosis differential diagnosis

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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Mashal Awais, M.D.[2]; Alejandro Lemor, M.D. [3]

Overview

Pulmonary tuberculosis should be distinguished from other diseases that cause cough, hemoptysis, fever, night sweat, and weight loss such as: bacterial pneumonia, atypical pneumonia, brucellosis, bronchogenic carcinoma, sarcoidosis, and Hodgkin lymphoma.

Differential Diagnosis

Pulmonary Tuberculosis

Disease Findings
Bacterial pneumonia Sudden onset of symptoms, such as high fever, cough, purulent sputum, chest pain, leukocytosis, chest X-ray shows consolidation.
Bronchogenic carcinoma may be asymptomatic, usually at older ages (> 50 years old), cough, hemoptysis, weight loss
Brucellosis Fever, anorexia, night sweats, malaise,back pain , headache, and depression. History of exposure to infected animal
Hodgkin lymphoma Fever, night sweats, pruritus, painless adenopathy, mediastinal mass
Mycoplasmal pneumonia Gradual onset of dry cough, headache, malaise, sore throat. Diffuse bilateral infiltrates on chest X-ray.
Sarcoidosis Non-caseating granulomas in lungs and other organs, bilateral hilar lymphadenopathy, mostly in African American females.
Adapted from Mandell, Douglas, and Bennett's principles and practice of infectious diseases 2010 [1]

Extra-Pulmonary Tuberculosis

Extra-Pulmonary Location Differential Diagnosis
Tuberculous Lymphadenitis Lymphoma, squamous cell carcinoma, papillary thyroid cancer, pyogenic infection
Skeletal Tuberculosis Multiple myeloma, bone metastasis, spinal cord abscess, osteoporosis
Tuberculous Arthrits Bacterial septic arthritis, pseudogout
Central Nervous System Tuberculosis Bacterial meningitis, viral meningitis, encephalitis
Tuberculosis Peritonitis Bacterial peritonitis, chronic peritoneal dialysis
Adapted from Asian Spine J. Feb 2014; 8(1): 97–111[2]; Handbook of Clinical Neurology[3]; Circulation Dec 2005 vol.112 no.23 3608-3616[4]; Am J Trop Med Hyg 2013 vol. 88 no. 1 54-64[5] Clin Infect Dis.(2011)53(6):555-562.[6]


Causes of

lung cavities

Differentiating Features Differentiating radiological findings Diagnosis

confirmation

  • CXR and CT demonstrates cavities in the upper lobe of the lung
  • Sputum smear-positive for acid-fast bacilli and nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT) is used on sputum or any sterile fluid for rapid diagnosis and is positive for mycobacteria.
  • Any age group
  • Acute, fulminant life threating complication of prior infection
  • >100.4F fever, with hemodynamic instability
  • Worsening pneumonia-like symptoms
  • CBC is positive for the causative organism
  • Children and elderly are at risk
  • Empyema appears lenticular in shape and has a thin wall with smooth luminal margins
  • Pulmonary nodules with cavities and infiltrates are a frequent manifestation of CXR
  • Elderly females of 40-50 age group
  • Manifestation of rheumatoid arthritis
  • Presents with other systemic symptoms including symmetric arthritis of the small joints of the hands and feet and morning stiffness are common manifestations.
  • Pulmonary nodules with cavitation are present in the upper lobe (Caplan syndrome) on Xray.
  • On CXR bilateral adenopathy and coarse reticular opacities are seen.
  • CT of the chest demonstrates extensive hilar and mediastinal adenopathy
  • Additional findings on CT include fibrosis (honeycomb, linear, or associated with bronchial distortion), pleural thickening, and ground-glass opacities.[13]
  • Common appearance on CT is patchy consolidation,often accompanied by ground-glass opacities and nodules.[17]
  • Exclusively occurs in smokers, with a peak age of onset 20-40 years.
  • Clinical presentation is variable, but symptoms generally include months of dry cough, fever, night sweats and weight loss.
  • Skin is involved in 80% of the cases, scaly erythematous rash is typical.
  • Thin-walled cystic cavities are the usual radiographic manifestation, observed in over 50% of patients by either CXR or CT scans.[19]
  • Biopsy of the lung
Differentiating brain tuberculoma from other brain cystic lesions
Disease Prominent clinical features Lab findings Radiological findings
Neurocysticercosis
Brain abscess
  • Lumbar puncture is contraindicated but when done, it was variable between patients.
  • Culture from the CT-guided aspirated lesion helps in identifying the causative agent.
Brain tumors
  • CT may be used in localizing the tumor and getting a rough estimate on the dimensions.
  • MRI: Gadolinium-enhanced MRI is the preferred imaging modality for assessing the extension of the tumor and its exact location.[22]
Brain tuberculoma
  • Presentations are usually due to the pressure effect, not the T.B. bacilli.
  • Presenting symptoms and signs in order of occurrence:[23]
  1. Episodes of focal seizures
  2. Signs of increased intracranial pressure
  3. Focal neurologic deficits.
  • CT: Contrast-enhanced CT scan shows a ring enhancing lesion surrounded by an area of hypodensity (cerebritis) and the resulting mass effect.
  • MRI: Better than CT scan in assessing the site and size of the tuberculoma. Gadolinium-enhanced MRI reveals a ring-enhancing lesion between 1-5 cm in size (In NCC, the wall is thicker, calcifications are eccentric and the diameter is less than 2 cm)
Neurosarcoidosis
  • 70% of the patients present with the neurological symptoms rather than the presentation of systemic disease. Common presentations include:[24]
  1. Cranial nerve neuropathies: Facial palsy is the most common presentation.
  2. Meningeal involvement: diffuse meningeal inflammation can result in diffuse basilar polyneuropathy in 40% of the patients. with neurosarcoidosis.
  3. Inflammatory spinal cord disease: Inflammatory span is often more than 3 spinal cord segments that help to distinguish it from Multiple Sclerosis.
  4. Peripheral neuropathy: Asymmetric polyneuropathy or mononeuritis multiplex. It may also manifest as Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) like presentation.
  5. HPO axis involvement: may present as diabetes insipidus. More than 50% of the cases do not have any radiological signs.
MRI brain showing brain abscess - Case courtesy of A.Prof Frank Gaillard, https://radiopaedia.org/ From the case https://radiopaedia.org/cases/4933"
MRI brain showing Glioblastoma multiforme - Case courtesy of A.Prof Frank Gaillard, <a href="https://radiopaedia.org/">Radiopaedia.org</a>. From the case <a href="https://radiopaedia.org/cases/28272">rID: 28272</a>
MRI brain showing tuberculoma - Case courtesy of Dr. G Balachandran, https://radiopaedia.org/ From the case https://radiopaedia.org/cases/5489"
MRI brain showing Neurosarcoidosis - Case courtesy of A.Prof Frank Gaillard, https://radiopaedia.org/ From the case https://radiopaedia.org/cases/4364S

Pulmonary tuberculosis must be distinguished from other cavitary lung lesions.

Differential Diagnosis

Pulmonary tuberculosis must be distinguished from other cavitary lung lesions.

Causes of

lung cavities

Differentiating Features Differentiating radiological findings Diagnosis

confirmation

  • CXR and CT show cavities in the upper lobe of the lung
  • Sputum smear-positive for acid-fast bacilli and nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT) are used on sputum or any sterile fluid for rapid diagnosis and is positive for mycobacteria.
  • Any age group
  • Acute, fulminant life threating complication of previous infection
  • >100.4 °F fever, with hemodynamic instability
  • Worsening pneumonia-like symptoms
  • CBC is positive for the causative organism
  • Children and elderly are at high risk
  • Empyema appears lenticular in shape and has a thin wall with smooth luminal margins
  • Females of 40-50 age group
  • Manifestation of rheumatoid arthritis
  • Presents with other systemic symptoms including symmetric arthritis of the small joints of the hands and feet with morning stiffness are frequent manifestations
  • On CXR bilateral adenopathy and coarse reticular opacities are seen
  • CT of the chest demonstrates extensive hilar and mediastinal adenopathy
  • Additional findings on CT include fibrosis (honeycomb, linear, or associated with bronchial distortion), pleural thickening, and ground-glass opacities.[13]
  • Exclusively occurs in smokers, with a peak age of onset 20-40 years
  • Clinical presentation is variable, but symptoms usually include months of dry cough, fever, night sweats, and weight loss
  • Skin is involved in 80% of the cases, scaly erythematous rash is typical

References

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