[Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura and tuberculosis. A rare association]

Thrombocytopenic thrombotic purpura (TTP) is a thrombotic microangiopathy associated with hematopoietic stem cells transplantation, pregnancy, puerperium, drugs, bloody diarrhea, a heterogeneous group of illnesses, such as malignant hypertension, autoimmune and neoplastic diseases, infections, and an idiopathic group that includes the pathologies that don't apply for the preceding clinical categories. Tuberculosis is an illness of intermediate incidence in Argentina, with increased frequency in high-risk groups. In this article, we present the case of a 60 years old male patient, with abdominal pain, cough and nocturnal sweating. He was diagnosed as having thrombocytopenia, and a few days later, microangiopathic anemia and TTP. Further examinations led TBC diagnosis based on: 1) acid fast bacillus (+++) for Ziehl Neelsen stain in bronco alveolar lavage, 2) laryngeal lesion and 3) ileocecal valve lesion. We report this case, because TBC has rarely been associated with TTP in medical literature.