ABSTRACT
The synchronous occurrence of tuberculosis and carcinoma in breast is unusual. The simultaneous occurrence of both the diseases can complicate the neoplastic disease. The diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis in a patient with cancer assumes importance as it can prevent high mortality in patients with co-existent disease and thereby create problems in treatment decision. Axillary lymph node enlargement in breast cancer patient is not always caused by metastatic tumour of the breast even in the ipsilateral axillary nodes. We present here six case reports as an example of tuberculous axillary lymphadenitis co-existing with invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast. Accurate diagnosis has helped in down-staging carcinoma of the breast and also in identifying curable disease.
ABSTRACT
Extra pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) comprises 15% of the total tuberculosis cases. Bleach concentration method for demonstration of Acid fast bacilli (AFB) has been recently described for sputum. The aim of this study is to apply this method for demonstration of AFB in material obtained from extra-pulmonary sites and to correlate with cytology and conventional Ziehl Neelsen (Z N) staining. A total of 55 samples were studied from clinically suspected cases of extrapulmonary TB which included, FNA lymph nodes (17), abscesses drained from various body parts (18), body fluids (18) and skin scrapping (2). All the samples were processed for routine cytology, conventional ZN staining and bleach method followed by ZN staining. Out of 55 samples, 24(43.40%) were indicative of tuberculosis on cytology, 12(21.8%) were positive for AFB on conventional ZN staining, while the positivity increased to 39(70.90%) by Bleach method. Bleach solution is inexpensive and readily available in hospitals and its application has been proved in pulmonary tuberculosis. However to the best of our knowledge this is a pioneer study applied to the extra-pulmonary samples and the results of the present study shows improved detection of AFB.