EC PULMONOLOGY AND RESPIRATORY MEDICINE Literature Review Patient with Pulmonary Tuberculosis: A Literature Review (original) (raw)
Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial disease caused by the bacillus Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) [1,2]. It can affect any parts of the body. In 2018, TB has affected about 10 million of the world’s population according to World Health Organisation (WHO). In the United Kingdom (UK), there were 5,075 notified cases of TB in the same year [2], 4,655 (91.7%) of which were in England [1]. From the notified cases in England in 2018, 2,664 (57.2%) of those were pulmonary in nature. In this review, available guidelines and literatures were critically analysed and evaluated in relation to a certain patient with smear-negative pulmonary tuberculosis. The patient had weight loss, non-productive cough, night sweats, loss of appetite, and fevers. Lateral right upper zone opacification was found on a chest x-ray (CXR) when the patient was seen by his General Practitioner which led to a referral to the specialist TB team. Computed Tomography (CT) imaging then confirmed bilateral upper lobe consoli...