Abstract
Tuberculosis is a disease relatively frequent in renal transplant patients, presenting a wide variety of clinical manifestations, often involving various organs and potentially fatal. Gastrointestinal tuberculosis, although rare in the general population, is about 50 times more frequent in renal transplant patients. Intestinal tuberculosis has a very difficult investigational approach, requiring a high clinical suspicion for its diagnosis. Therapeutic options may be a problem in the context of an immunosuppressed patient, requiring adjustment of maintenance therapy. The authors report two cases of isolated gastro-intestinal tuberculosis in renal transplant recipients that illustrates the difficulty of making this diagnosis and a brief review of the literature on its clinical presentation, diagnosis, and therapeutic approach.
Highlights
Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MT) is a common infectious agent, in developing countries, with a reported incidence of 18.9 cases/100.000 inhabitants/year in general population [1,2,3]
MT infection can be due to primary infection, reactivation of latent TB foci favored by immunosuppression (IS), or, in a lesser extent (4%), it can be transmitted by the allograft [3, 5, 6]
Singh and Paterson [1] attribute the lower IS used in renal transplant (RT), compared to other solid organ transplantation, as a reason for this later presentation
Summary
Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MT) is a common infectious agent, in developing countries, with a reported incidence of 18.9 cases/100.000 inhabitants/year in general population [1,2,3]. Unlike general population, in renal transplant (RT) patients, extrapulmonar (occurring in 15%) and disseminated diseases (33–49%) are very frequent [1,2,3, 7]. In these patients atypical presentation is the rule and it requires a high clinical suspicion for its diagnosis [8]. The authors report two cases of isolated gastrointestinal (GI) TB in RT recipients that illustrates the difficulty of its diagnosis and do a brief review of the literature on this topic
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
