Spectrum of central nervous system tuberculosis: An experience from a large tertiary care institution of India

Central nervous system (CNS) is an important site for extrapulmonary tuberculosis. The present study evaluated the spectrum of CNS tuberculosis in a high tuberculosis endemic region.

The study included 306 cases of CNS tuberculosis. All cases were assessed for clinical evaluation and neuroimaging. All cases were followed up for 3 months. Modified Barthel index was used to assess the outcome.

Out of 306 cases of CNS tuberculosis, 174 (56.86%) had intracranial tuberculosis, 55 (17.97%) had spinal tuberculosis, 15 (4.91%) had both intracranial and spinal pathology. Sixty-two (20.26%) patients had disseminated tuberculosis. Two-hundred and fourteen (69.9%) cases had tuberculous meningitis. Disseminated tuberculosis patients had significantly poor modified Barthel index and 3-month outcome. Culture positivity was significantly higher in the disseminated group. Ten (27.02%) out of 37 culture positive tuberculous meningitis cases had multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis. On multivariate analysis disseminated tuberculosis, baseline modified Barthel index ≤12, and stage 3 predicted poor outcome. Fifty-five patients had spinal tuberculosis. Thirty-four (75.56%) patients with Pott's spine improved with antituberculosis treatment and only 11 (24.44%) patients had modified Barthel index ≤12, after 3 months.

In tuberculosis-endemic areas a varied form of CNS tuberculosis is frequent. CNS tuberculosis is often part of disseminated tuberculosis.