[Tuberculosis in hemodialysis]

The authors report a retrospective study in order to illustrate the particular features of tuberculosis in hemodialysis population. Thirty two patients over 203 (15.8%) in periodic hemodialysis, have presented a tuberculosis between 1983 and 1996. There were 17 men and 15 women aged from 14 to 60 years old. The features of the tuberculosis in these cases were marked by the extrapulmonary localizations (50%) notably nodes tuberculosis, and the difficulties of the diagnosis certainty. The diagnosis was suspected basing on the fever, the weigh loss, the rate sedimentation increase and the radiologic lesions in pulmonary tuberculosis and peripheric or deep lymph nodes involvement. The diagnosis confirmation was established bacteriologically in 6 cases (18.7%) and histologically in 14 cases (43.8%). The treatment consisted on the association of isoniazide, rifampicin and pyrazinamide which leads to recovery in 87.5%. This treatment was a diagnosis proof in the absence of confirmation.