Patient factors associated with failure to diagnose tuberculosis in the emergency department

Emergency department (ED) presentation of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) can be highly atypical and an ED visit might be the only health care interaction for high-risk patients.

Our objective was to identify patient factors associated with discharge without a diagnosis of TB during an infectious ED visit.

The study population consisted of 150 patients from 2000 to 2009 with 190 infectious ED visits. Patients were initially identified from the state registry of confirmed TB cases and epidemiological characteristics were identified prospectively during case investigation. A retrospective review was performed for clinical characteristics of visits dichotomized according to whether the diagnosis of TB was made during the ED visit.

Analysis revealed that 77% of all infectious-patient visits ended with a diagnosis of TB. A TB diagnosis was more likely when patients presented with pulmonary or infectious chief complaints, endorsed cough, subjective fever, chills, dyspnea, previous TB infection, or had an abnormal lung examination or chest x-ray study. Patients were significantly less likely to be diagnosed with TB when they were unresponsive during clinical evaluation or when they reported a history of both homelessness and any substance abuse during the last year. In addition, these characteristics were independent predictors of nondiagnosis when traditional TB risk factors or abnormal vital signs were considered.

Patients with atypical presentations, as well as those who were unresponsive or reported a history of homelessness and substance abuse, were at greater risk for nondiagnosis of TB during an infectious ED visit.