In this randomized three year study of the primary treatment of 332 patients with cavitary or far advanced pulmonary tuberculosis, ethambutol (I Mitt was com pared to streptomycin (SM). One hundred eighty days of SM was compared to 180 days of EMB with each drug part of a three-drug regimen including isoniazid (INH) and para-aminosalicylic acid (PAS). A regimen of EMB-INH was compared to the th...

Tuberculosis remains a global health pandemic. The current depiction of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis life cycle proposes that airborne bacilli are inhaled and phagocytosed by alveolar macrophages, resulting in the formation of a granuloma that ruptures into the airways to reinitiate the infectious cycle. However, this widely proposed model overlooks the fact, established 100 years ago, that t...

Rasmussen's aneurysm, a very rare complication of active pulmonary tuberculosis (TB), is a pulmonary artery aneurysm adjacent to or within a tuberculous cavity. It may lead to rupture and life threatening massive hemoptysis, an uncommon but challenging medico-surgical emergency. This complication warrants attention in view of the resurgence of tuberculosis and increasing occurrence of multi-dru...

BACKGROUND Pulmonary tuberculosis is still the most common form of tuberculosis in HIV infected patients having different presentations according to the degree of immunosuppression. This study appraised the impact of HIV infection on clinical, laboratory and radiological presentations of tuberculosis. METHODS The clinical, laboratory and radiological presentations of pulmonary TB in 56 HIV-in...

OBJECTIVES Occupational exposure to carbon, silica, and quartz particles are predisposing factors for bronchial anthracosis. In some cases anthracosis may be associated with mycobacterium tuberculosis. This study aims to investigate the clinical, radiographic, and bacteriologic findings in bronchial anthracosis patients and its association with tuberculosis. METHODS This is a prospective stud...

We report a very rare case of a bronchogenic cyst combined with nontuberculous mycobacterial pulmonary disease in an immunocompetent patient. A 21-year-old male was referred to our institution because of a cough, fever, and worsening of abnormalities on his chest radiograph, despite anti-tuberculosis treatment. Computed tomography of the chest showed a large multi-cystic mass over the right-upp...

Tuberculosis, once thought to have been controlled, is now resurgent in many parts of the world. Many gaps exist in understanding the pathogenesis of tuberculosis, especially secondary and cavitary disease. Evidence presented here suggests that cord factor (trehalose 6,6'-dimycolate, TDM) is a key driver of these processes. It is the most abundant lipid released by virulent M. tuberculosis (MTB...

With a tuberculosis case detection rate of 5.9 per 100,000 population in 2001, Alabama ranked twelfth highest in the United States. However, cases among foreign-born and human immunodeficiency virus-infected individuals remain low in Alabama. To understand the endemic statewide disease pattern, tuberculosis strains were studied for clustering in a long-term population-based study from January 1...

BACKGROUND Clofazimine (Cfz) has shown activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, including multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains in vitro and in animal studies. Here we evaluate the clinical efficacy and tolerability of using Cfz to treat MDR tuberculosis in China. METHODS We enrolled 105 patients who had sputum culture-positive MDR tuberculosis in 6 major tuberculosis specialty hospitals in C...