Studies by C. Lange and co-authors describe new findings in tuberculosis
2007 NOV 19 -- "Background A 63-year-old German woman with a 24-year history of Crohn's disease and associated polyarthralgias presented with severe malaise, dyspnea, fever, night sweats, dry cough and an extensive right-sided pleural effusion. The patient had begun treatment with bi-weekly subcutaneous injections of adalimumab 5 weeks earlier," scientists in Borstel, Germany report. "Investigations Physical examination, chest X-ray, transthoracic ultrasonography, pleural tap and drainage, bacterial and cytological analyses of pleural fluid, bronchoscopy, microscopy and bacteriological culture of pleural exudates and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, thoracic CT, thoracoscopy, histopathology of pleural biopsy, tuberculin skin test, nucleic acid amplification of mycobacterial RNA and DNA in the pleural fluid specimens and the parietal pleural biopsy, microscopy of sputum samples, ESAT-6-specific and CFP-10-specific nterferon-gamma enzyme-linked immunospot assay on peripheral blood and pleural exudate mononuclear cells. Diagnosis Pulmonary and pleural tuberculosis. Management Cessation of adalimumab treatment. Initiation of quadruple antibiotic therapy with isoniazid, rifampin, ethambutol and pyrazinamide," wrote C. Lange and colleagues. The researchers concluded: "Prednisolone administered to reduce the pleural effusion." Lange and colleagues published their study in Nature Clinical Practice Rheumatology (Rapid immunodiagnosis of tuberculosis in a woman receiving anti-TNF therapy. Nature Clinical Practice Rheumatology, 2007;3(9):528-534). For additional information, contact S. Ehlers, Research Center Borstel, Division Molecular Infection Biology, Parkallee 22, D-23845 Borstel, Germany. The publisher's contact information for the journal Nature Clinical Practice Rheumatology is: Nature Publishing Group, 75 Varick Street, 9TH Floor, New York, NY 10013-1917, USA. Keywords: Germany, Borstel, Cutaneous Tuberculosis. This article was prepared by Tuberculosis Week editors from staff and other reports. Copyright 2007, Tuberculosis Week via NewsRx.com.
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