[Diagnosis of abdominal tuberculosis in general and specialized healthcare facilities]

The aim of this work was to study clinical manifestations of abdominal tuberculosis (AT) and its diagnosis. It included 142 patients examined in Ulyanovsk region in 1990-2006. 88.7% of them first applied to general practitioners who diagnosed AT in 69.7% of the cases (half of them postmortem). AT was found in one third (30.3%) of the patients attending tuberculosis dispensaries (86.1% during urgent laparatomy). AT manifests itself as clinical conditions requiring therapeutic, surgical, anti-infectious, and anti-tumour treatment. The most informative diagnostic tool is histological study of tissue biopsies obtained during endoscopic and videolaparoscopic procedures. Medical histories also provide materials for early diagnosis and treatment of AT by evidence-based methods; they include data on refractory gastrointestinal ulcers and infiltrates, calcinates located in mesenteric lymph nodes, liver and spleen by X-ray, hypersensitivity to tuberculin.