[Tuberculosis in the pregnant woman]

The prevalence of tuberculosis (TB) in Mexico as in the rest of the developing countries is high and no reduction has been noted in the past years. This article describe the clinical features of the disease during the gestational period. We studied 15 cases of TB and pregnancy treated at the Infectious Diseases Department of the Instituto Nacional de Perinatología, from January 1990 to June 1991. At our Institute the incidence was 1.54 cases by 1000 obstetric patients discharged, with a lethality rate of 6.6 deaths by 100 infected patients. We treated 15 women, nine had pulmonary TB, three renal TB, two TB of the cervical lymph node and one cutaneous TB. In seven patients the diagnosis was made before pregnancy, other seven were diagnosed during gestation, and one during puerperium. All patients were treated with antituberculous drugs; the most frequent combination was isoniazid, ethambutol and rifampin. Twelve women had no complications, one died, another developed preeclampsia, and in one case the patient had a low birth weight neonate. No cases of congenital TB were identified and none of the neonates had abnormalities at birth.