GASTROINTESTINAL TUBERCULOSIS IN UPPER EGYPT

Abstract

Gastrointestinal tuberculosis is an important, but probably underestimated clinical problem. It is no longer a rarity and a high index of suspicion is necessary of both endemic and non endemic areas. Tuberculosis being common in our locality, must be considered in the differential diagnosis of undiagnosed gastrointestinal diseases and those not responding to treatment. The purpose of this work is to draw attention to the relative frequency of of gastrointestinal tuberculosis in our locality and to identify the type of causative mycobacteria. The study included 215 patients that were examined clinically for gastrointestinal manifestations with unsettled diagnosis, presented to the gastroentrology department, Assiut University Hospital between October, 1988 and April, 1991. Out of these patients, 91 cases proved to have gastrointestinal mycobacteriosis (of these 91 cases, 17 cases proved to have gastrointestinal tuberculosis). In addition to routine methods of investigations as stool analysis, blood picture, x-ray chest and abdominal ultrasonography, all patients were subjected to gastroscopy and/or colonoscopy according to the presentation and provisional diagnosis of the patients. Tissue biopsies were taken from the eliceted lesions and utilized for histopathology and isolation and identification of mycobacteria. The mean age of the patients was 33.9 ± 14.8 years and males to females ratio was 1:l, the prepondrance of patients falls in the third and fourth decades and most of the patients were from the rural areas.