RESUMO
Background: many studies have shown that the extra-pulmonary tuberculosis is growing compared to the pulmonary one. This study was carried out on under-treatment TB patients in order to evaluate the comparison of pulmonary and extra pulmonary TBs in kashan
Materials and Methods: the study was carried out on available data and the medical documents of TB patients treated in "Kashan TB Center" during a five year-period [2002-7]. All relevant data regarding the treatment were collected based on the definition presented by "Iranian Defense Guidelines against TB"
Results: one-hundred and three [52.6%] female and 93 [47.4%] male TB patients were studied 89 [45.4%] of who were Iranian and 107 [54.6%] was Afghani. The prevalence of pulmonary and extra-pulmonary cases were 130 [66.3%] and 66 [33.7%], respectively. The highest number of pulmonary TB was 72[55.38%] cases in female and extra-pulmonary TB was 35[53.04%] cases in males. Forty-six [69.6%] of extra-pulmonary patients completed their treatment period and 71[54.6%] of pulmonary patients were recovered completely. The most common clinical signs in pulmonary TB and in extra pulmonary TB were coughing [90%], sputum [87.6%] and weight loss [59.1%], night sweating [40.9%], respectively. The highest prevalent foci for extra-pulmonary TB were lymph nodes [19 [28.7%] cases] and bone [12[18.18%] cases]
Conclusions: the study showed that the prevalence of extra-pulmonary TB is one third of all TB cases. Therefore in the evaluation of non-specific findings of patients, TB must be considered