title: Understanding cutaneous tuberculosis: two clinical cases.
abstract: Tuberculosis (TB) is an ancient human disease and remains today one of the most important public health problems and the second most frequent cause of death from an infectious disease worldwide. While pulmonary TB is the most common form, extra-pulmonary TB is on the rise due to the increase in immunosuppressed subjects. Cutaneous TB manifestations are rare forms of extra-pulmonary TB due to systemic dissemination of bacilli or direct inoculation, involving skin or skin-associated tissue, more common in immunocompromised subjects. Some risk factors and the features of the lesion may prompt the suspicion of cutaneous TB, but only microbiological assays can confirm the diagnosis. Our work summarizes cutaneous TB manifestations and differences from other skin mycobacterial infections, also describes two characteristic clinical cases.
authors.affiliation: Insitute of Microbiology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore , Rome , Italy.
authors.forename: Flavio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: De Maio
authors.affiliation: Institute of Infectious Diseases, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore , Rome , Italy.
authors.forename: Enrico Maria
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Trecarichi
authors.affiliation: Institute of Infectious Diseases, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore , Rome , Italy.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Visconti
authors.affiliation: Insitute of Microbiology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore , Rome , Italy.
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sanguinetti
authors.affiliation: Insitute of Microbiology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore , Rome , Italy.
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Delogu
authors.affiliation: Insitute of Microbiology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore , Rome , Italy.
authors.forename: Michela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sali
keywords: cutaneous; diagnosis; infection; mycobacterium; tuberculosis