A prospective study of hepatic tuberculosis in 41 black patients

Forty-one black patients aged 21 to 75 years with hepatic tuberculosis diagnosed at liver biopsy were studied prospectively. The liver varied in size and consistency and was tender in 44 per cent of patients. Abdominal symptoms, weight loss, pyrexia, hepatomegaly, splenomegaly and anaemia were absent in 54, 39, 37, 5, 68 and 27 per cent of patients respectively. Twenty-two per cent of chest radiographs were normal. Liver function tests were of little diagnostic value and hepatic imaging techniques often gave normal results. Acid-fast bacilli, caseation and coexistent liver disease were detected in 59, 51 and 37 per cent of patients respectively. Since there was no consistent clinical pattern a high index of suspicion is necessary if this disease is to be detected in communities in which tuberculosis is endemic. In patients with unexplained hepatomegaly or hepatosplenomegaly or pyrexia of unknown origin liver biopsy provides the only means of making this diagnosis.