ABDOMINAL TUBERCULOSIS MIMICKING OVARIAN CANCER ON CT SCAN: THE VALUE OF CHEST X-RAY IN DIAGNOSIS

Background: Difficulties in diagnosing abdominal tuberculosis prevent the patient from receiving optimal therapy. The objective of this study was to determine whether chest X-rays have value in the diagnosis of abdominal tuberculosis which mimics ovarian cancer on CT- scans. Materials and Methods: : This was a retrospective study on abdominal tuberculosis patients who had mimicked ovarian cancer on CT- scans at Soetomo Hospital Surabaya from January 2015 to December 2020. Results: We included 33 patients in this study. The diagnosis was confirmed by biopsy and histopathological examination. The patient age ranged between 20 and 60 years. Twenty patients (60.6%) had normal chest X-rays. The most common severity level of CT scans results of abdominal tuberculosis was moderate severity (63.67%), which was most common in both the group of normal chest X-rays (65%) and the group of chest X-rays with pulmonary tuberculosis (61.5%).Pearson chi-square test showed there was no statistical relationship between the presence of pulmonary tuberculosis on chest X-ray and the extent of abdominal tuberculosis on CT scan. The contingency coefficient between the variables obtained an r of 0.157 (p> 0.05). Conclusion: Chest X-ray is considered to have no significant role in the diagnosis of abdominal tuberculosis mimicking ovarian cancer on CT-scan.