ABSTRACT
The prevalence of intestinal tuberculosis has been markedly decreased with the development of anti-tuberculous chemotherapy, preventive medicine, vaccinations, early detection and treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis, and improved eeonomic conditions. Nowadays, intestinal tuberculosis is a disease that should be differentiated from the inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, Behcet's disease, and colon cancer and amebic colitis. This disease also has a new clinical significance in that it has an increased infection rate and unfavorable outcomes in patients infected by HIV or in those who undergo organ transplantation or receive immunosuppressive agents. Tuberculosis of the duodenum was a rare disease and was not reported in the last decade. Moreover Intestinal tuberculosis extensively involving the small bowel including the duodenum and colon was very rarely reported in the various relateid literature. Recently we experienced a case of advanced intestinal tuberculosis involving the duodenum, jejunum, ileum, and colon accompanied by tuberculous cervical and abdominal lymphadenopathies, in a 49-year-old woman who manifested profound general weakness, diarrhea, and marked weight loss. She was diagnosed pathologically by upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, colonoscopy, and fine needle aspiration cytology as well as by roentgenologic examination. The patient was given antituberculous medication which resulted in dramatic clinical improvement. In this report, we present this case with review of the related literature.