Evaluation of Patients Diagnosed with Tuberculosis Followed in the Tuberculosis Dispensary

Abstract

Objective: In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the demographic and clinical characteristics, diagnostic methods and treatment modalities of the patients followed up with the diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB). Methods: Patients older than 18 years of age who were followed up for TB in Van Central Tuberculosis Dispensary between January 2018 and December 2021 were included in this study. Demographic characteristics, clinical symptoms, physical examination, radiological and bacteriological findings, comorbidities, and treatment modalities of the patients were retrospectively analyzed. Results: Two hundred forty-nine patients, 133 (53.4%) male and 116 (46.6%) female, were included in the study. The mean age of the patients was 39.7 years. Only pulmonary TB was found in 111 (44.6%) patients, extrapulmonary TB (EPTB) in 123 (49.4%), and both pulmonary TB and EPTB in 15 (6%) patients. While 95.2% of the patients were symptomatic, the most frequently described symptom was cough-sputum (n = 99, 89.1%) and weight loss (n = 76, 68.5%) in patients with only pulmonary TB, while weight loss (n = 60, 48.8%) and night sweats (n = 52, 42.3%) were observed in patients with EPTB. It was found that the diagnosis of EPTB was generally made by histopathological methods (64.2%), and in pulmonary TB, it was mostly made by bacteriological methods (61.3%). Conclusion: With this study, it was concluded that EPTB was detected at a higher rate in women than in men, it was found at a higher rate compared to previous studies, and histopathological methods were mostly used in the diagnosis.