ABSTRACT

Introduction: Pulmonary tuberculosis is an important cause of morbility and mortality in developing countries, and the possibility of infections with drug-resistant strains has increased. Tuberculous lesions are usually located in the upper lung field, but there is scanty information about the radiological presentation in patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis. Objective: To compare the radiological presentation of multidrug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis with the observed in other drug-resistances (non-MDR) Methods: The chest X-rays of patients with drug-resistant pulmonary tuberculosis attending a tuberculosis clinic between 1994 and 1995 were reviewed. Lesions were classified according to their location in the upper, lower or multilobar lung fields, and presence of cavitations was assessed. Results: We included 50 patients, in whom multilobar were the most frequent lesions (58.8%). MDR tuberculosis was present in 34 (68%) of patients. When we compared MDR and non-MDR tuberculous patients, there was no difference in the location of pulmonary lesions or in the frequency of cavitations. When adjusted by gender, a difference in the frequency of bilateral multilobar lesions (p = 0.004) and cavities (p = 0.02) in male patients with MDR tuberculosis was observed. Conclusions: Radiological images in MDR tuberculosis were very similar to those observed in other resistances and, in general, whichever the drug-resistance could be, their images seem to be similar to those found in tuberculosis due to sensitive strains.

KEYWORDS

Pulmonary tuberculosis, tuberculosis, resistance, drug-resistance, multidrug-resistance.

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