Case report of abdominal tuberculosis: a challenging diagnosis

Abstract

Tuberculosis is one of the top 10 causes of death worldwide and a leading cause of death from an infectious disease, above HIV/AIDS. It spreads mainly when a person with active tuberculosis disease expels airborne microparticles by coughs containing tuberculosis bacteria. The typical manifestation of its infection is pulmonary tuberculosis; however, it can also present as extrapulmonary tuberculosis, this last causing approximately 14% of total cases of the disease. Of tuberculosis-infected patients, although this is not a general rule, the immunocompromised patients and those with HIV are more susceptible to present extrapulmonary manifestations and disseminated disease, and even though lymphatic, miliary, and central nervous system involvement are the most prevalent, abdominal tuberculosis occurs as well with relative frequency. Abdominal tuberculosis is a diagnostic challenge given its clinical systemic and imaging manifestations, that can simulate proliferative abdominal malignant processes, inflammatory, infectious, and deposit diseases, which require histopathological studies for its confirmation and adequate treatment. The radiologist must be aware of the imaging manifestations of this pathology and keep it in mind in their differential diagnoses in cases of abdominal pathology with no clear known cause.