ABSTRACT
@#Tuberculosis (TB) caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis remains a serious public health threat with the World Health Organisation (WHO) reporting 5.8 million cases and 1.3 million deaths in the year 2020 due to TB. TB can be diagnosed by imaging, histopathological and bacteriological methods with culture remaining the gold standard. This study was performed to look at the sensitivity and specificity of post-mortem computed tomography (PMCT) imaging when compared to culture in diagnosing pulmonary tuberculosis. This was a retrospective comparative study looking at post mortem cases where lung tissue samples sent for TB culture at Hospital Kuala Lumpur were compared against PMCT imaging. Exclusion criteria included contaminated samples, decomposed cases, immunocompromised subjects and those below 18 years of age. Subjects included 80 medico-legal autopsy cases at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, Hospital Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia who had whole body PMCT done in accordance with the Institute’s protocol and tissue samples sent for bacteriology culture for tuberculosis. PMCT findings were positively associated with acid-fast organisms in 23.5 out of 33 cases (71.2%). Our study also showed that PMCT had a sensitivity of 71.3% and specificity of 54.3% (95% CI: 39.5–68.4) in diagnosing TB based on the protocol set in this study. This study showed that there was relatively good agreement between radiological PMCT findings and bacterial culture, suggesting that radiological examination is a relatively reliable tool for preliminary screening and possible diagnosis of TB prior to a postmortem examination which would be beneficial in reducing the risk of transmission of TB to health workers during autopsy.
ABSTRACT
@#Tuberculosis (TB) is a highly infectious disease on the rise caused by the organism Mycobacterium tuberculosis and health care workers working in emergency departments, medical wards and autopsy rooms are in danger of contacting this disease. We present a case of a 42 year old man found dead under a pedestrian bridge with no medical history available. Post mortem computed tomography showed multiple cavities involving upper lobes of both lungs and areas of consolidation in both lung fields raising the suspicion of pulmonary tuberculosis. This was followed by a computed tomography guided lung biopsy and a limited conventional autopsy done in situ in a special high risk autopsy suite with appropriate ventilation. This case highlights the importance of cross sectional imaging which can be coupled with image guided biopsy in cases of infectious disease to reduce the risk of transmission to health care workers.