Elderly age and tuberculosis: diagnostics difficulties and course features

Abstract

ABSTRACT. The clinical observation of an elderly female patient, who was being treated at the Zaporizhzhia Regional Phthisiopulmonology Clinical Treatment and Diagnostic Center, is presented, the features of the diagnostics and the course of the tuberculosis process is determined. The clinical case demonstrates the difficulty of timely tuberculosis diagnostics due to numerous comorbidities in an elderly woman. Most cases of tuberculosis in the elderly are associated with the reactivation of old specific foci, which can be explained by age-related changes in the immune system. In this case, the difficulty of the timely tuberculosis diagnostics was associated with non-specific symptoms of the active process and the absence of bacterial excretion 2 years ago in an elderly woman. As a result, a diagnosis of malignant neoplasm of the upper lobe of the left lung was mistakenly made. The outcomes of the disease led to the development of fibrocavernous tuberculosis with multidrug resistance. The woman had a good adherence to the treatment, which gave a positive result.

Keywords

• elderly
• tuberculosis