Tuberculosis

- Swelling can be present in tuberculosis.
- Most commonly seen in the upper apical lobe of lung.
- Bacteria eat interstitial tissues and cause fibrosis
- They form a cavity
- After fibrosis sets in, it forms a cavity
- If treated, there will be no problems in lung
- If untreated, patients need multi-drug therapy.
- Can cause gastritis.
- The patient will not likely be able keep up with the intensity of the drug therapy.

- Coincident with the AIDS epidemic, the incidence of tuberculosis has risen dramatically. Worldwide, almost a third of all deaths in AIDS patients are attributable to tuberculosis, but this complication remains uncommon in the United States. Patients with AIDS have reactivation of latent pulmonary disease as well as outbreaks of primary infection. In contrast to infection with atypical mycobacteria, M. tuberculosis manifests itself early in the course of AIDS. As with tuberculosis in other settings, the infection may be confined to lungs or may involve multiple organs. The pattern of expression depends on the degree of immunosuppression; dissemination is more common in patients with very low CD4+ T-cell counts. Most worrisome are reports indicating that a growing number of isolates are resistant to multiple anti-mycobacterial drugs


References:
1. Kumar, Raminder et al.  Robbins and Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease 8th Ed.  Sander Elsevier. 2010.