A Study on Clinical Profile of Children with Tuberculosis in a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital

Abstract

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major public health problem in India, with children contributing significantly to the disease burden. Paediatric tuberculosis reflects ongoing transmission in the community and poses diagnostic challenges due to its varied clinical presentation and paucibacillary nature. Many clinicians regard tuberculosis as an adult pulmonary disease, but tuberculosis (TB) is a major cause of disease, both pulmonary and extrapulmonary, and death in young children from TB-endemic countries, especially in areas affected by poverty, social disruption, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.

Materials and Methods: This retrospective study included 70 children less than 17 years of age. All the demographic details of the patients were recorded from the hospital records. A thorough clinical record of patient and contact history and physical examination, TST, CXR, sputum smear microscopy and culture were noted. Cases with positive bacteriology (smear, culture or both) were considered TB. The patient sample was divided into 3 groups based on age: less than 8 years, 8-12 years, 13-17 years. Entire data was recorded in the Microsoft excel sheets. SPSS software was used for statistical analysis.

Results: 38.57% of patients were less than 8 years of age. 41.42% of patients belonged to age group of 8-12 years whereas 20% of the patients were above 13 years and less than 17 years. Out of 70 patients 41 were females (58.57%) and the rest 29 were males (41.42%). It was observed in this study that cough was the most common presenting symptom amongst the patients (75.71%). Fever, fatigue and weight loss was present in 70%, 62.85% and 55.71% cases respectively.

Conclusion: Children are highly vulnerable to tuberculosis, and there are particularities specific to paediatric patients. Cough, fever, fatigue and weight loss are the most presenting signs of pulmonary tuberculosis in children.