Radiograghic evaluation of lymphadenopathy in pulmonary tuberculosis in Northeastern, Nigeria

There is changing pattern of presentation of tuberculosis in the era of HIV Lymphadenopathy is one of the most important manifestations of tuberculosis, hence the need for the evaluation of its radiologic patterns.

A multi-centre retrospective study of chest radiographs of 116 adult patients diagnosed bacteriologically (positive sputum smear) as pulmonary tuberculosis was conducted in the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, Maiduguri, and Federal Medical Centre Nguru, in Bomo and Yobe States, Nigeria, respectively between April 2003 and March 2004. Lymphadenopathy was assessed in all the radiographs.

Of the one hundred and sixteen radiographs of patients analyzed, there were 83 (71.6%) males and 33 (28.4%) females with mean age of 37.99 +/- 14.11 years. A total of thirty eight patients (32.7%) presented with lymphadenopathy with the highest frequency in the left hilar region (12.9%). Bilateral hilar and paratracheal lymphadenopathy were the lowest with equal percentages (4.3%). Left, right and bilateral hilar enlargement were more common in males than females (p < 0.000) and more patients had left hilar (15) than right hilar (13) enlargement (p = 0.030). Only 3 (2.6%) out of all the patients presented with lymph node calcification.

In conclusion, there is a rise in the prevalence of lymphadenopathy among pulmonary tuberculosis patients when compared to a previous study done in the pre-HIV era in Nigeria.