Myocardial Tuberculosis and beyond: a rare form of extra pulmonary TB in a young boy

ABSTRACT Myocardial tuberculosis is an exceptionally rare form of extra-pulmonary TB. Few cases were reported world-wide. Here a young snake charmer who had skin tuberculosis 5 yrs back admitted into National institute of diseases of Chest and hospital (NIDCH), Dhaka with the complaints of cough, palpitation and breathlessness for 2 months. He had right axillary firm matted lymphadenopathy, left sided large pleural effusion, left ventricular and septal hypertrophy with band and mass inside the ventricle (evident on CT scan of heart and echocardiography). His ESR was 95 mm in1st hr, Mantaux test was 15mm, Pleural fluid was exudative lymphocyte predominant with adenosin deaminase (ADA) 68.6 U/L. Fine needle aspirates from right axillary LNs showed Mycobacterium tuberculosis on GeneXpert for MTB/RIF testing and caseous granuloma on cytopathological study. Whole Body F18 FDG PET-CT revealed numerous low FDG avid size significant lymph nodes in right side of neck, mediastinum and right axilla with cardiomegaly with focal FDG avid within the left ventricular cavity likely to be prominent papillary muscle. MRI of heart or Myocardial biopsy for histology was not done due to their cost and invasiveness and also for that there was sufficient evidence of having tuberculosis in lymph node, pleura nas myocardium. This patient was treated with anti tubercular medications (3HRZE2S/5HRE) with prednisolone for six months. After treatment, myocardial lesions, pleural effusion and lymphadenopathy were found resolved. Thus a case of fatal and serious tuberculosis was explored and managed successfully.