[The difficulty of the diagnosis of tuberculosis in hemodialysis patients]

We report two cases of tuberculosis in patients undergoing maintenance dialysis. In both cases Mycobacterium tuberculosis was not isolated in spite of multiple localizations and diagnosis was made with delay. Severe hypocalcemia was the main symptom in one patient, who had pulmonary, genito-urinary and spinal tuberculosis. The other patient had tuberculous lymphadenitis. The two patients survived their disease on antituberculous therapy. From the literature the authors give the actuarial data of tuberculosis occurring in patients undergoing hemodialysis.