Tuberculosis extrapulmonar con compromiso peritoneal. Reporte de caso clínico y revisión de literatura
Extrapulmonary tuberculosis with peritoneal compromise. Case clinical report and literature review
Rev. Hosp. Clin. Univ. Chile; 28 (3), 2017
Publication year: 2017
Extrapulmonary tuberculosis accounts for a significant proportion of tuberculosis cases
worldwide (about 20-25% of the cases). Nevertheless, the diagnosis is often delayed or
even missed due to insidious clinical presentation and poor performance of diagnostic tests.
Peritoneal tuberculosis is due to the infection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the peritoneum.
It represents 0.7% of total cases of tuberculosis. This disease can mimic malignancy specially
in women, because of its clinical presentation with ascites, weight loss and similar radiological
sings. The phenomenon of migration, the increased use of immunosuppressive therapy and the
epidemic of AIDS have contributed to a resurgence of this disease. We present the clinical case
of a Haitian woman who presented ascites, abdominal pain and weight loss with radiological
signs that suggested peritoneal carcinomatosis, in which further studies of ascitic fluid showed
elevated adenosindeaminase, a specific and sensitive finding for tuberculosis. (AU)