The Clinical Observation of Miliary Tuberculosis in Children

ABSTRACT

We made a clinical observation of 63 cases with miliary tuberculosis at the pediatric department of Hanyang University Hospital in Seoul, Korea, during the period from January, 1973 to September, 1979. The result were as folowing 1. The incidence of miliary tubeculosis in children was 0.57%(63 cases/11,040) of total admission cases. The incidence was increased for the last 2 years, that is 0.54% in 1978 and 0.96% in 1979 respectively. 2. The highest incidence by age was noticed as 79.4% in the group under the age of 3 years with the 1 case of 2 months old. 3. The seasonal prevalence were winter and spring showing incidence of 63% 4. The source of infection was found in 49.2% of all cases, and majority (58.1%) of the infection was caused by their parents. 5. Only 9.5% of cases had received BCG innoculation. 6. The chief compalints on admission were revealed in the order of fever (71.4%), coughing (66.7%), vomiting (49.2%), irritability (25.4%), etc. 7. The principal clinical features on admission were marked emaciation (46.0%), abnormal neurologic sign (46.0%), hepatosplenobegaly (34.9%) in order. 8. The tuberculin skin test with 5TU PPD was noticed positive reaction in 54%. 9. The causative organism was isolated in 42.3% of all 26 observed cases. 10. Hematologic findings revealed mild degree of anemia (63.9%), leukocytosis (75.5%), increased ESR (63.4%). 11. Miliary density on X-ray were disappeared within 4 months following treatment in 73.9% of all 23 observed cases. 12. The complications or combined diseases were tuberculous meningitis (41 cases), cervical lymphadenopathy (10 cases) and tuberculous peritonitis (4 cases), etc. 13. The mortality rate was 14.3% (9 cases/63).