Pseudotumoralpresentation of osteoarticular tuberculosis in a patient with systemic lupus erythematosus

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious granulomatous disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosum which typically compromises the lungs, but can also affect other organs (extrapulmonary TB). In the Americas, the extrapulmonary form represents 15% of newly diagnosed cases, matching the global incidence. An adverse genetic background aided by the immunosupression state of these patients increases the risk of presenting the extrapulmonary form involving the lymph glands, pleura, genitourinary tract, bones and joints, meninges, bowel, pericardium, and the skin in order of their frequencies. As such, osteoarticular TB represents only 1–3% of extrapulmonary cases globally. In Peru, extrapulmonary TB represents 17.6% of newly diagnosed cases. The most affected age group comprises people between 20 and 59 years of age (65.45% of diagnoses). In the developing world, infectious diseases (particularly TB) are one of the main causes of morbimortality in systemic lupus erythematosus patients. The authors report the case of a 21-year-old female patient with an systemic lupus erythematosus background who had swelling in her left hand for 6 months prior to admission in which the diagnosis was suspected after histological study.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC-SA

A person counts once a day per paper. We keep no cookie and no address: a reader is a hash that changes every day. Any month under five reads shows no number.