Abstract
Miliary tuberculosis is the most serious form of tuberculous disease, but is rarely complicated with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). When a patient with miliary tuberculosis initially presents with ARDS, the mortality is much higher. Therefore, the early detection of miliary tuberculosis as the underlying cause of ARDS is very important for the prognosis and survival of the patient. The diagnosis of miliary tuberculosis may be easy if the patient presents typical clinical manifestations associated with the characteristic pattern of miliary nodules on chest radiology. However, the diagnosis of miliary tuberculosis when complicated with ARDS can be difficult due to the nonspecific radiologic patterns, such as diffuse bilateral consolidation and ground glass opacity, without miliary nodular infiltration. However, these nonspecific patterns are known as less likely findings of miliary tuberculosis. We experienced a pregnant woman with miliary tuberculosis, mimicking ARDS due to bilateral severe pneumonia. She was admitted, via the emergency room, with sudden onset of fever, chill, cough and dyspnea. The initial chest PA and HRCT showed diffuse bilateral consolidation and ground glass opacity, without miliary nodular infiltration. All bacteriological studies, including blood and sputum cultures, tuberculosis-PCR and serologic study for infectious disease were negative. However, the definite diagnosis of unusual miliary tuberculosis as the underlying cause of ARDS was confirmed from the radiological finding and transbronchial fiberoptic lung biopsy. We report this case, with a review of the literature.
저자들은 중증 폐렴으로 인한 ARDS양상으로 내원한 임신 3개월의 속립성 결핵 환자를 경기관지 폐생검과 방사선 소견 및 임상양상을 종합적으로 고려하여 속립성 결핵에 의한 ARDS로 확진할 수 있었던 1예를 경험하였기에 문헌 고찰과 함께 보고하는 바이다.