Johari Bushra, Hanafiah Mohammad
Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Teknologi MARA, UiTM Sungai Buloh Campus, Sungai Buloh 47000, Selangor, Malaysia.
Department of Radiology, Assunta Hospital, Petaling Jaya 46050, Selangor, Malaysia.
Case Rep Med. 2020 Jun 30;2020:3708252. doi: 10.1155/2020/3708252. eCollection 2020.
Active pulmonary tuberculosis involving the lung parenchyma is typically seen on CT as consolidation, centrilobular nodules with tree-in-bud branching, cavitating lesions, and miliary nodules. However, some atypical CT patterns of granulomatous disease including tuberculosis have been recently described, namely, clusters of nodules without confluence or with confluence. We present a case of a patient who was found to have nonconfluent clusters of micronodules in the right lung with negative sputum culture for tuberculosis. There were also incidental findings of the partial duplex system of the left kidney with mild-to-moderate hydronephrosis in the lower moiety with proximal hydroureter. The urine culture was then positive for mycobacterium tuberculosis; hence, he was commenced on antituberculous medications. A repeated CT scan revealed significant improvement of the aforementioned clusters of micronodules and left hydronephrosis. In the present case, we would like to highlight the atypical appearances of pulmonary tuberculosis in the form of nonconfluent micronodules on HRCT despite negative sputum workup, with the concurrent active genitourinary tuberculosis.
累及肺实质的活动性肺结核在CT上通常表现为实变、伴有树芽状分支的小叶中心结节、空洞性病变和粟粒样结节。然而,最近已经描述了包括结核病在内的肉芽肿性疾病的一些非典型CT表现,即结节簇不融合或融合。我们报告一例患者,其右肺发现有不融合的微小结节簇,痰培养结核结果为阴性。同时还意外发现左肾部分双肾盂系统,下部分轻度至中度肾积水,伴有近端输尿管积水。尿培养结核分枝杆菌呈阳性;因此,他开始接受抗结核药物治疗。重复CT扫描显示上述微小结节簇和左肾积水有明显改善。在本病例中,我们想强调尽管痰检结果为阴性,但HRCT上肺结核以不融合微小结节形式出现的非典型表现,同时伴有活动性泌尿生殖系统结核。