Other symptoms may include microcytosis, anemia, thrombocytosis, and an elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate. Although a chest x-ray is often negative, advanced imaging, such as CT or magnetic resonance imaging, is often abnormal and may point to the diagnosis.5
Treatment of extrapulmonary TB is generally the same as that for pulmonary TB and, interestingly, the incidence of multi-drug resistant extrapulmonary TB is not necessarily higher than it is for pulmonary TB (<1% vs 1.6%).3,7 In light of this, a standard regimen—like the one our patient received—is generally utilized for 6 to 9 months. Nonetheless, resistance testing should still be performed.3,4
THE TAKEAWAY
While considered uncommon, more than 20% of TB cases in the United States are extrapulmonary (the most common form is TB lymphadenitis).7,8 It is imperative to identify appropriate risk factors, including associated comorbidities, patient characteristics, and population/endemic differences in immigrant populations.
In this case, although the symptom combination of persistent abdominal pain, fever, and weight loss may not trigger suspicion of a TB diagnosis in isolation, combining the symptoms with knowledge of the patient’s immigration status should at least raise an eyebrow. Given their nonpulmonary symptoms, many of these patients will not present to pulmonologists, making diagnosis particularly relevant to primary care.