Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to A Berna Dursun.
Besides definition and treatment of index cases, prophylaxis plays an important role in battling tuberculosis that is still health problem in developing countries. But, in clinical practice, there are differences about prophylaxis between countries and even in our country. Approaches to prophylaxis of developed countries and current situation of our country were looked over for this purpose.
Skeletal tuberculosis remains a potentially crippling disease in the developing world; particularly as it usually affects children and young adults. The spine is involved approximately 50% of bone and joint tuberculosis cases. The features of four spinal tuberculosis cases were looked over this article. Their ages were between 18 and 76 years. All of them were male and immunocompetent. Pain was the major complaint. There was no life-threatening neurological sign. Among them, a case who was admitted to the hospital with painful torticollis had upper cervical-lower thoracic spinal tuberculosis with psoas abscesses and peritoneal tuberculosis, but no pulmonary involvement. The other cases had thoracolumbal spinal tuberculosis with psoas abscesses and pulmonary tuberculosis of which miliary, chronic and new pulmonary tuberculosis. The whole diagnosis of spinal tuberculosis was made by radiographically-MRI and CT-. Specific antituberculous therapy with supportive care was begun and remarkable responses without surgical intervention were seen on them except miliary pulmonary tuberculosis case. The aim of this presentation was to emphasize the importance of early diagnosis so that adequate pharmacological treatment can be initiated to avoid serious complication.
Pulmonary involvement is one of the most common extra-articular manifestations of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We studied four smear-positivepulmonary tuberculosis patients who had had RA for 2.5-12 years. Three of them were using corticosteroids at the time of diagnosis. The clinical, radiological and bacteriological features of all the patients were examined. We conclude that when patients with RA have symptoms related to pulmonary involvement, tuberculosis should be considered, particularly in developing countries.