Miliary tuberculosis after in vitro fertilization and embryo transplantation

With the development of assisted reproductive technology, more patients with infertility prefer to get pregnant by in vitro fertilization and embryo transplantation (IVF-ET). But the indications of IVF-ET must be strictly controlled by the clinicians.

We described a case of a 29-year-old pregnant Chinese woman with military tuberculosis. She was admitted to the hospital with complaints of fever and shortness of breath. She received IVF-ET 83 days ago, because of infertility with bilateraltubal occlusion, and was in pregnancy status. We presented the clinical, laboratory and two chest CT scan features of the patient. The second chest CT scan showed randomly distributed, innumerable tiny, military nodules throughout the lungs. The fluorescence quantitative PCR of the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) was positive for Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The M. tuberculosis was cultured from BALF on Day 29. So we made the diagnosis of military tuberculosis.

It is important to rule out tuberculosis for the infertility patients especially with bilateraltubal occlusion before IVF-ET in order to avoid tuberculosis disseminate during pregnancy.