Radiology Case Reports (Aug 2018)

Tuberculous peritonitis in children: Two case reports highlighting the important role of imaging

  • Jacob Zaslavsky,
  • Lakeisha Mulugeta-Gordon,
  • Irene Vasko,
  • Thomas Presenza,
  • Emily Scattergood,
  • Debrah Meislich,
  • Pauline Germaine

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13, no. 4
pp. 862 – 866

Abstract

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Tuberculous peritonitis is an uncommon extrapulmonary form of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection, frequently presenting with nonspecific and insidious symptoms. Diagnosis is therefore difficult, unsuspected, and often delayed, especially in the pediatric patient without an obvious history of exposure to the pathogen.This report presents a 9-year-old Hispanic girl and a 3-year-old African American boy presenting with nonspecific and insidious symptoms, such as abdominal pain, distention, and fever in whom computed tomography findings of peritoneal thickening and enhancement, high density ascites, lymphadenopathy, and bowel wall thickening acted as key components in establishing a final diagnosis of the condition. Computed tomography is an important clinical adjuvant in making this difficult diagnosis. Keywords: Tuberculosis, Peritoneal tuberculosis, Tuberculous peritonitis, Imaging, Diagnosis, Computed tomography