Abstract
Introduction and Objectives: Tuberculosis causes 10-55% of all hepatic ranulomas. Sputum Smear-negative patient suspected of having pulmonary tuberculosis is a diagnostic challenge. The objective of this study is to determine the prevalence of hepatic granuloma in smear- positive pulmonary tuberculosis to decide whether hepatic biopsy could be used in diagnosing tuberculosis in Sputum Smear-negative patient suspected of having pulmonary tuberculosis.
Materials and Methods: 34 patients ( 16 males; age range 14-71 years) with smear- positive pulmonary tuberculosis undergone hepatic biopsy in Sina hospital of Kermanshah, during the years 1995-98.
Results: Liver function tests were normal in all. In 5 of 34 patients ( 14.7%) hepatic granulomas were found.
Discussion and Conclusions: Diagnostic gain of hepatic biopsy is too low to be recommended for diagnosing tuberculosis in Sputum Smear-negative patient suspected of having pulmonary tuberculosis.
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© 2002, Journal of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences. This open-access article is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 (CC BY-NC 4.0) International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which allows for the copying and redistribution of the material only for noncommercial purposes, provided that the original work is properly cited.