Study of Clinico-Radiological Profile in Childhood Tuberculosis

Abstract

Background: Tuberculosis still is one of the deadliest diseases in the world killing nearly 2 million people every year. In India, two deaths occur every three minutes from tuberculosis. The actual global disease burden of childhood tuberculosis is not known, as childhood Tuberculosis is notoriously difficult to diagnose because of the absence of a ‘gold standard’ as bacteriologic confirmation is rarely achieved. The present study was designed to study clinical profile of various forms of childhood TB. Objective of this study was to study clinic-epidemiological profile of various forms of childhood TB.Subject and Method:Retrospective analysis of clinical profile of 100 patients of childhood TB in the age group of 6 months to 12 years. A detailed clinical history, family history of contact with Koch’s disease, history of BCG vaccination of each child was recorded. A complete examination was carried out and findings regarding the general and systemic examination were recorded. Result:Age distribution in our study showed that 51% cases in the age of 5-12 years, 47% cases in the age group 1-5 years and 2 % cases falling in the age group 0-1 years, with male to female ratio of a 1.27:1. 95% of the patients belonged to the lower socio-economic class. The distribution of TB was- pulmonary tuberculosis(42%),TBME(30%),pleural effusion(12%),abdominal TB (12%), TB lymphadenitis(4%), Osteotuberculosis(2%), miliary TB(2%). 12% of the patients had mild to moderate malnutrition (PEM Grade I, II)and 57 % were severely malnourished. 72% of the patients were BCG vaccinated and history of Koch’s contact were present in 21% of all cases. The most frequently seen symptoms were fever (88%), cough (65%), weight loss in 50%, anorexia in 35% of cases and in physical examination cachexia was the most common (50%) followed by hepatomegaly (40%),lymphadenopathy(16%) and Splenomegaly (8%) of cases. Conclusion:childhood TB is commonly seen in children more than 1 year, lower socioeconomic class and in severely malnourished children.