Clinical and imaging aspects of the patients diagnosed with extrapulmonary tuberculosis, Havana 2016-2019

Introduction: extrapulmonary tuberculosis shows a complexity that can influence in its morbidity and mortality rates. Objective: to characterize the patients with extrapulmonary tuberculosis from a clinical-imaging perspective in the Hospital Neumológico Benéfico Jurídico in Havana in the period 2016-2019. Method: a descriptive, retrospective and cross-sectional study was carried out in 34 patients with the diagnosis of extrapulmonary tuberculosis. The variables taken into account were: age, gender, risk factors for the disease, symptoms and clinical signs, radiological findings, diagnosis methods used, and location. Results: male patients with ages ranging between 26 to 35 years predominated in the study (29.4%). 73.5% of the patients presented risk factors of the disease, being most common: contact of previous tuberculosis patients (29.4%), ex-inmates (17.6%) and alcoholics (14.7%). 58.8% of the patients presented fever and general symptoms like anorexia (44.1%), weight loss (41.2%) and asthenia (38.2%). The most common radiological finding was pleural effusion (47%), and the most frequent extrapulomary form of the disease was tuberculous pleurisy (15 cases representing a 44.1%). The clinical-radiological method made diagnose possible in 50% of the patients. Conclusions: the most common clinical manifestations were fever, weight loss and asthenia. The clinical-radiological method is the most frequently used, and the most frequent radiological finding was the pleural effusion. Pleural location was the most common extrapulmonary form of tuberculosis.