Epidemiology of extra pulmonary tuberculosis in Zahedan

Background: Tuberculosis canses a broad range of clinical illnesses caused by mycobacterium
tuberculosis (or less commonly mycobaterium bovis). It is the most frequent cause of death
worldwide. Tuberculosis can affect virtually every organ, most importantly the lungs. Extra
pulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) may develop simultaneously in the course of pulmonary
tuberculosis or it may appear years after the primary pulmonary infection. In recent years, because
of AIDS epidemic and an increase in the number of immigrants from countries where tuberculosis
remains endemic and an improvement in invasive diagnostic procedures have contributed to an
increase in the occurrence of extra pulmonary tuberculosis.
Methods and Materials: Because of the variations and dispersion of extra pulmonary tuberculosis
observed between the developed and developing countries we were tempted to evaluate the entire
cases of extra pulmonary tuberculosis in Zahedan between 1998-2003.
Results: In the survey, extra pulmonary tuberculosis formed 23.19% of all tuberculosis cases. A
total of 417 patients (62.11% female and 37.89% male) were evaluated. Female between 15-24
years and male >65 years appeared to be predisposed to developing extra pulmonary tuberculosis.
Tuberculosis lymphadenitis was the prevalent form of extrapulmonary tuberculosis (34.05%),
fallowed by tuberculosis of pleural (12.23%), Tuberculosis of the bone (11.99%) in the order.
Conclusions: Extra pulmonary tuberculosis comprises one-fourth of all cases of TB. This figure is
consistent with that of WHO. Tuberculosis lymphadenitis is the most common form of extra
pulmonary among women and young individuals.