Clinical and Radiological Characteristics of Tuberculous Pneumonia: Comparison with Typical Pulmonary Tuberculosis and Community-Acquired Pneumonia

Abstract

Copyrights © 2013 The Korean Society of Radiology Purpose: To evaluate the clinical and radiological characteristics of tuberculous pneumonia (TBPn). Materials and Methods: We compared the clinical presentation, pneumonia severity index (PSI), and radiological findings of 51 TBPn patients with those of typical pulmonary tuberculosis (PulTB) and community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) patients. Results: The mean age of patients with TBPn was higher than that of patients with CAP or PulTB (66.6 ± 15.8 vs. 53.1 ± 17.1, 54.9 ± 15.7) (p < 0.05). Diabetes mellitus was more common in patients with TB than in those with CAP (24.1% vs. 8.2%) (p < 0.05). The PSI scores for TBPn and CAP were similar (79.5 ± 31.1 vs. 71.8 ± 28.3, respectively) and were higher than that for PulTB (64 ± 26.8) (p < 0.05). The ratio of lower lobe involvement was higher in TBPn and CAP than in PulTB (49% and 75.5% vs. 22.4%, respectively). Cavity formation and centrilobular nodules were more common in TBPn than in CAP (13.7% vs. 6.1% and 74.5% vs. 22.4%, respectively) (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Although TBPn shows a similar clinical presentation to CAP, it is more common in elderly patients and more commonly involves lower lobe involvement with cavity formation and centrilobular nodules. Therefore, in cases in which there may be diagnostic uncertainty, appropriate diagnostic procedures following these findings are required to differentiate these diseases. Index terms Community-Acquired Pneumonia Pulmonary Tuberculosis Tuberculous Pneumonia Pneumonia Severity Index Radiologic Finding Clinical and Radiological Characteristics of Tuberculous Pneumonia: Comparison with Typical Pulmonary Tuberculosis and Community-Acquired Pneumonia 결핵성폐렴의 임상적 및 방사선학적 특징: 전형적 폐결핵, 지역사회획득폐렴과의 비교