Author(s)

Mohammad Mahmudul Huda¹, Mohammad Taufiq², Md. Abdullah Yusuf³, Mohammad Rezwanur Rahman⁴, Ferdousy Begum⁵, Mohammed Kamal⁵

¹Department of Pathology, Dhaka National Medical College, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
²Square Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
³Department of Microbiology, National Institute of Neurosciences & Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
⁴Department of Biochemistry, Delta Medical College, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
⁵Department of Pathology, Banghabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Background: Clinical and demographic features are important for the tuberculous lymphadenitis patients for treatment. Objective: The purpose of the present study was to see the clinical and demographic features of tuberculous lymphadenitis patients. Methodology: This cross-sectional study was done at the Department of Pathology at Banghabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), Dhaka from January 2009 to March 2011 for a period of nearly two years. All the patients, irrespective of age and sex with the clinical features, suggestive of tuberculous lymphadenitis and later on, proved to be the same histologically, were selected for the study purposively. Relevant information was recorded in a prescribed data sheet and histomorphological findings were recorded accordingly. In cases where fresh specimen was available, caseous portion of lymph node was sent for culture. Fite Faraco staining was also done on lymph node sections in all cases. Result: A total number of 50 tuberculous lymphadenitis patients were recruited for this study. Among this study population, the age of cases ranged from 12 years to 65 years with a mean age of 26.22 ± 2.52 years. Male and female ratio was 1:1.38. Besides lymphadenopathy, 45 patients had low grade fever; 32 patients had weight loss and 18 patients had cough. Among 50 cases of lymph node tuberculosis cervical lymphadenopathy was 41 (82.0%) cases; 6 (12.0%) cases had supraclavicular lymphadenopathy; 2 (4.0%) cases had inguinal lymphadenopathy and 1 (2.0%) had axillary lymphadenopathy. The mean duration of presentation of lymphadenopathy with standard deviation was 7.06 ± 1.6 months. Thirty eight patients (76.0%) had lymphadenopathy for less than 12 months. Conclusion: In conclusion, young age group people are most commonly affected by tuberculous lymphadenitis with the predominance of female and most of them are presented with low grade fever and weight loss.

Tuberculous Lymphadenitis, Tuberculosis, Lymph Nodes, Clinical Features

Huda, M. , Taufiq, M. , Yusuf, M. , Rahman, M. , Begum, F. and Kamal, M. (2016) Clinico-Demographic Characteristics of Tuberculous Lymphadenitis: Experience of 50 Cases in Bangladesh. Journal of Tuberculosis Research, 4, 220-226. doi: 10.4236/jtr.2016.44024.