Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) requiring hospitalization is mainly caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae and respiratory viruses.(1) Among patients with severe CAP, including those requiring admission to an intensive care unit, additional important pathogens include Staphylococcus aureus, Gram-negative bacteria, and Legionella pneumophila.(1,2) Typically, Mycobacterium tuberculosis is not a pa...

BACKGROUND The tuberculin skin test (TST) is used to test for latent tuberculosis (TB) infection and support the diagnosis of active TB. However, little is known about the relationship between the TST result and the clinical presentation of TB disease. METHODS We analyzed US TB surveillance data, 1993-2010, and used multinomial logistic regression to calculate the association between TST resu...

BACKGROUND In 90% of all cases, Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection results in latency rather than active disease, with the pathogen being contained within granulomatous lesions at the site of primary infection. Failure of this containment leads to reactivation of postprimary tuberculosis (TB). The regional immune processes that sustain the delicate balance with persistent M. tuberculosis, how...

Spontaneous excavation of primary lung cancer is common; however cavitation of metastatic lung lesions is rare and usually confused with benign lesions. In Moroccan context tuberculosis is the first suspected diagnosis of lung excavations. We report a rare case of cavitary lung metastasis of a uterine cervix cancer, treated initially as tuberculosis. A 40-year old non-smoking woman with a known...

Standard methods to monitor tuberculosis (TB) treatment response rely on sputum microscopy and culture conversion. Alternatives to these methods are needed for those patients whose sputum tests are smear or culture negative. Here, we examine anti-phospholipid IgM antibody level changes as a biomarker for treatment response in smear positive TB patients. Serum samples were obtained from 40 pulmo...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this article is to review the origins of the classic teaching on pulmonary tuberculosis, its evolution in the modern literature, and the evidence that led to its demise. CONCLUSION Use of molecular epidemiologic techniques that entail DNA finger-printing has led to the discovery that the radiographic appearance of pulmonary tuberculosis does not depend on the time sin...

RATIONALE Policy recommendations on contact investigation of HIV-seropositive patients with tuberculosis have changed several times. Current epidemiologic evidence informing these recommendations is considered low quality, and few large studies investigating the infectiousness of HIV-seropositive and -seronegative index cases have been performed in sub-Saharan Africa. OBJECTIVES We assessed t...

Background & Aims: Tuberculosis is one of the most important causes of mortality in the world and if it is not treated, 50 – 65% of patients would die in five years. Chest X-ray has an important role in the diagnosis of TB and early diagnosis and treatment prevent tuberculosis transmission. In this study we evaluated radiologic manifestations of patients with smear positive pulmonary tubercu...