ABSTRACT
Background: Ethiopia is one of the countries that has high burden of all forms of tuberculosis and there is no published report on computerized tomography scan and/or magnetic resonance imaging of intracranial tuberculomas. Objective : to review the clinical, computerized tomography and/or magnetic resonance imaging features of intracranial tuberculoma. Methods: A retrospective review of patient's medical records of patients operated for intracranial mass that had computerized tomography and/or magnetic resonance imaging brain scans and had histopathological diagnoses, at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital between January 2009 and June 2013.Results: Of 222 operated cases of intracranial mass subjected to histopathological test 29 (14.6%) were found to have tuberculomas, 28 (14.1%) had caseous necrosis and one was a tuberculous abscess, in 25 cases imaging was available for review and were included in the study . There were 15 males and 10 females with age range being 2 to 65 years and with the Median age being 13 years. Twenty patients had computerized tomography and five patients had magnetic resonance imaging. Seizure 15/25 (60%) and headache 11/25 (44%) were the commonest presentation. Solitary or confluent large lesions were seen in 12/25 (48%) of patients. 14/25 (56%) of the lesions had their size between 2 cm and 5 cm. Majority of the lesions 15/25 (60%) were in the frontal and parietal lobes. The lesions were isodense on CT in 18/25 (72%) of the pre-contrast studies and 21/25 (84%) showed ring or rim enhancement after intravenous administration of the contrast medium.Conclusion: Tuberculoma, more frequently, presented with non-specific clinical findings and chronic seizure disorder and commonly occurred in young patients and often seen infratentorialy. It is often complicated with hydrocephalus in the pediatric age group. Computerized tomography scan and/or magnetic resonance imaging features are not different from reports from other countries
Subject(s)
Ethiopia , Hospitals, Teaching , Magnetic Resonance Imaging , Tomography, X-Ray Computed , Tuberculoma, Intracranial , TuberculosisABSTRACT
Background: One-third of the world population is infected with mycobacterium tuberculosis. Most people exposed to mycobacterium tuberculosis showed no evidence of active disease. About 5-10% of latent tuberculosis infection without HIV will progress to developed active tuberculosis in their lifetimes. This study was conducted to determine the magnitude of Latent TB among the adult population at a teaching and referral Hospital in Ethiopia.Methods: This study was conducted at the Chest clinic of Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital during 2010-2013.The study was a cross-sectional study conducted among healthy adults after informed consent was obtained from each individual. Tuberculin skin test and Interferon Gamma whole blood assay (Quantiferon-Tuberculosis-Gold) was performed using Enzyme linked Immuno-sorbent Assay. Average CD4, CD8, CD3 and CD4:CD8 ratio was determined for all study participants. Results:From a total of 70 healthy adults tested for latent tuberculosis infection using Quantiferon Gold,45(64%) tested positive and 25 (36%) were negative for latent tuberculosis infection. From the sixty six healthy individuals who were tested using tuberculin skin test for latent tuberculosis infection, 42 (62%) individuals were Tuberculin skin test positive and 25 (38%) individuals were Tuberculin skin test negative. Average CD4, CD8, CD3 and CD4:CD8 ratio was 748, 598, 1401 and 1.4, respectively. Conclusions: The magnitude of latent tuberculosis infection was high in this study, which reflects existing high prevalence of tuberculosis.Tuberculin skin test and Quantiferon-Tuberculosis-Goldassay show similar efficacy for the diagnosis of latent tuberculosis infection in healthy Ethiopian adults. The absolute CD4 T-cell counts of healthy HIV-negative Ethiopian's are considerably lower than other countries