Concomitant pulmonary tuberculosis and venous thromboembolism

Abstract

Abstract Globally, tuberculosis (TB) is a common communicable disease and every year affects millions of people, particularly in developing countries. Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is common in elderly people with higher mortality. TB is also common in old people and is an independent risk factor of VTE. However, the association of VTE and active TB is rare, even in high-prevalence countries like India, and the reason is not known. In developing countries, failure to suspect thrombotic events clinically by those who treat a large number of TB cases in the peripheral health centres may be one of the reasons for underreporting VTE in active TB. In active TB, deep venous thrombosis (DVT) is more frequent than pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) or VTE. DVT or PTE or VTE may present with TB or develop during treatment for TB, but simultaneous occurrence of active pulmonary TB and VTE is rare. We report concomitant active pulmonary TB with VTE without comorbid illnesses in an elderly man as a rare occurrence.