Cavitating Consolidation with Acute Febrile Respiratory Illness & ‘Sister Cavities’ Without Typical Constitutional Symptoms in Pulmonary Tuberculosis: A Rare But Possible!

Abstract

Community acquired pneumonia is the most common cause for lung parenchymal infiltrates in chest radiograph in scenarios with acute febrile respiratory illness. Tuberculosis in India accounts for the highest number of cases and deaths in the world. In spite of an efficient National tuberculosis control program for five decades, Tuberculosis is still the number one cause of death due to infectious agents in India and one third of total global deaths occurs in India due to this disease. Tuberculosis may present with consolidation, cavitation, coin lesion, parenchymal infiltrates and hilar mass like lesions. Acute febrile respiratory illness without typical constitutional symptoms is not frequently described in pulmonary tuberculosis. In this case report, a 69-year male, presented with acute febrile respiratory illness of short duration. He was having high grade fever, cough, shortness of breath & haemoptysis of less than two weeks duration. His symptoms were progressive and empirically treated as lower respiratory tract infection or community acquired pneumonia with oral and intravenous antibiotics by general physicians and family physicians. Family physician referred to our center for worsened general health with increased shortness of breath with episodes of minimal haemoptysis. Chest x-ray documented right lower lobe consolidation which has progressed to central cavitations and thick pericavitary rim of consolidation mimicking lung abscess. Clinically he was having crepitations in the right inframammary and infrascapular area with egophony heard. HRCT thorax showed consolidation with cavitation in the superior segment of the right lower lobe and adjacent small cavity in the posterior segment presenting as a ‘Sister cavity’ accompanying a large parent cavity. He was unable to produce sputum and we have processed induced sputum examination which has documented acid-fast bacilli in smear and MTB genome with rifampicin sensitivity in cartridge based nucleic acid amplification test. Initially, microbiologists refused for smear preparation due to salivary nature and poor-quality sputum. We have insisted for microbiology workup due to high chances of yield due to cavitary lung disease and noted positive yield. Treatment initiated with anti-tuberculosis (ATT). We have recorded near complete radiological resolution, bacteriological cure after eight months of ATT with good compliance. Acute febrile respiratory illness and absence of typical constitutional symptoms is not uncommon. Although cavitating consolidation is commonly described in community acquired pneumonia, presence of ‘sister cavity’ is a radiological clue to think and proceed to workup towards active pulmonary tuberculosis. Induced sputum has a very significant impact on diagnostic yield. Pulmonary tuberculosis should be suspected early in cases with cavitating consolidations to have a successful treatment outcome.