title: Splenic tuberculosis presenting as fever of unknown origin with severe neutropenia.
abstract: Fever of undetermined origin always poses a challenging problem to the physician. Tuberculosis is an important health problem in developing countries. It is mostly seen in immune-compromised patients. And it is one of the common causes of fever of unknown origin. I am reporting a case of a splenic tuberculosis in 48 years old male who is not known of any immune deficiency state, he was presented with 3 weeks history of fever and found to have severe neutropenia and with negative work up for all hematological, rheumatological and malignant causes. A computerized tomography scan of the abdomen confirmed splenic enlargement with multiples hypo dense lesions consist with either splenic infection or splenic lymphoma so exploratory splenectomy was performed. Histological examination revealed granulomatouse inflammation with numerous acid fast bacilli consist with tuberculosis. He was started on four anti-tuberculouse drugs. in less than one week his fever subside with normalization of his neutrophilic count.
authors.affiliation: Division of Gastroenterology, Department of medicine, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2925(59), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. nazzam@ksu.edu.sa
authors.forename: Nahla A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Azzam
mesh_terms: D000995:Antitubercular Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D005334:Fever / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D009503:Neutropenia / Q000209:etiology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013154:Spleen / Q000473:pathology; D013156:Splenectomy; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014400:Tuberculosis, Splenic / Q000150:complications* / Q000188:drug therapy
chemical_list: D000995:Antitubercular Agents