title: Symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis in consecutive smear-positive cases treated in Ethiopia.
abstract: The purpose of the study was to define in detail the usually accepted respiratory and non-respiratory symptoms of newly discovered smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis in a group of Ethiopians. There were 163 consecutive patients referred to the weekly Chest Clinic at the Tuberculosis Demonstration and Training Centre in Addis Ababa. The results showed that more than 5% of pulmonary tuberculosis cases had respiratory symptoms of less than 2 weeks. Some symptoms such as haemoptysis, chest pain and dyspnoea prompted early reporting while there was a delay in reporting other symptoms such as cough, in spite of cough being present in all patients. Most of the non-respiratory (constitutional) symptoms were reported fairly early. A history of tuberculosis contact was relevant in this group of patients. A negative Mantoux test was noted in 20% of patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Teklu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D002637:Chest Pain / Q000209:etiology; D002648:Child; D003371:Cough / Q000209:etiology; D004417:Dyspnea / Q000209:etiology; D005002:Ethiopia; D005260:Female; D006469:Hemoptysis / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000302:isolation & purification; D012737:Sex Factors; D014397:Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000382:microbiology