Pancreatic tuberculosis: a frequently fatal but potentially curable disease.
A 40-year-old man with prolonged constitutional symptoms and clinical evidence of pancreatitis and biliary tract obstruction underwent exploratory laparotomy. Intraoperative liver and pancreatic biopsies revealed acid-fast bacilli. Mycobacterium tuberculosis subsequently grew from both sputum and urine cultures. The patient responded well to antituberculosis therapy, although 8 months later, he returned with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and died of large cell lymphoma 1.5 years later. A review of the literature showed that most similar cases of pancreatic tuberculosis were diagnosed only at postmortem examination. A high index of suspicion and attention to special stains are warranted for diagnosis of this frequently fatal, but potentially curable, disease.
Ezratty
A
A
Department of Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, City University of New York, New York.
Gumaste
V
V
Rose
E
E
Sachar
D B
DB
Tiscornia-Wasserman
P
P
D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000150:complications; D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000302:isolation & purification; D010182:Pancreatic Diseases / Q000473:pathology*; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology*