The Epidemiology of Tuberculosis in Tabriz, Iran: A Five Year Retrospective Study

Article type: Original Article Background: Tuberculosis is one of the most important causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Approximately 10-20% of tuberculosis is Extrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB), which is much higher (50%) in patients suffering from immunity defects such as AIDS. EPTB diagnosis is difficult mostly because of various clinical manifestations and aggressive procedures needed for its diagnosis. The main goal of this study was to determine the prevalence of EPTB in the north west of Iran and also to investigate the different clinical characteristics of the studied population, the various clinical manifestations and organ involvement of EPTB, as well. Methods: This study was carried out retrospectively using the data from Tabriz Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Research Center from 2007 through 2011. Questionnaires were designed to extract relevant information to describe characteristics of EPTB affected population and also various clinical manifestations and organ involvement of the disease among the patients. Results: The study included 203 EPTB cases notified from 2007 through 2011 including, 91 (44.83%) males and 112 (55.17%) females. The mean age of the patients was 46.55 ± 18.3. The main extra pulmonary involvements of the studied population were lymphadenitis (9.35%), pleural (7.39%) and spinal (5.42%) among males and lymphadenitis (17.24%), ocular (7.88%), pleural (6.40%) and spinal (5.91%) among females, respectively. Conclusion: Since EPTB diagnosis is a challenging and time sparing attempt even by the expert physicians, there is a need to perform further researches in order to identify the main clinical manifestations and organ involvement of EPTB in patients.