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For patients with necrotizing cervical tuberculous lymphadenitis (CTL) who have formed abscesses and are unwilling to undergo surgery, early and accurate assessment of drug therapy should be performed to guide subsequent clinical adjustments. This study investigated 22 patients with necrotizing CTL who underwent chemotherapy at our hospital from February 2020 to December 2022. They were diagnosed based on the positive results of pathogen detection methods (acid-fast bacillus smear, mycobacteria culture, Gene X-pert, and next-generation sequencing). Based on the 6-month treatment outcomes, the relationship among prechemotherapy ultrasound features, pus Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) load, and treatment efficacy was assessed. In this study, the maximum lymph node (LN) area, maximum necrotic area, and pus MTB load in patients with necrotizing CTL were associated with poor prognosis and showed significant differences between the effective and ineffective groups ( P  < 0.05). However, no statistical difference was observed in the maximum longitudinal diameter, short diameter, and necrosis rate between the two groups ( P  > 0.05). The maximum necrotic area of the LNs was not associated with the pus MTB load. Furthermore, maximum LN area, maximum necrotic area, and pus bacterial load may be potential radiological markers for predicting the therapeutic response of CTL.

Lymph node tuberculosis is particularly common in regions with a high tuberculosis burden, and it has a great risk of rupture. This study aims to investigate the utility of ultrasound multimodal imaging in predicting the rupture of cervical tuberculous lymphadenitis (CTL). 128 patients with unruptured CTL confirmed by pathology or laboratory tests were included. Various ultrasonic image features, including long-to-short-axis ratio (L/S), margin, internal echotexture, coarse calcification, Color Doppler Flow Imaging (CDFI), perinodal echogenicity, elastography score, and non-enhanced area proportion in contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS), were analyzed to determine their predictive value for CTL rupture within a one-year follow-up period. As a result, L/S (P < 0.001), margin (P < 0.001), internal echotexture (P < 0.001), coarse calcification (P < 0.001), perinodal echogenicity (P < 0.001), and the area of non-enhancement in CEUS (P < 0.001) were identified as significant imaging features for predicting CTL rupture. The prognostic prediction showed a sensitivity of 89.29%, specificity of 100%, accuracy of 95.31%, respectively. Imaging findings such as L/S < 2, unclear margin, heterogeneous internal echotexture, perinodal echogenicity changed, and non-enhancement area in CEUS > 1/2, are indicative of CTL rupture, while coarse calcification in the lymph nodes is associated with a favorable prognosis.

ObjectiveThe diagnosis of superficial tuberculous lymphadenitis (TBLN) remains difficult due to low detection rate of etiology. To increase the diagnostic value for TBLN, contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) guided core biopsy was introduced to obtain the specimen followed by Xpert MTB/RIF (Xpert) and other methods testing and to explore the optimum diagnostic pattern for TBLN in China.MethodsA prospective study was performed on patients with suspected superficial TBLN. All patients underwent CEUS-guided core biopsy from which specimens were tested by histopathology, Xpert, acid-fast bacilli (AFB), and MGIT960 culture (MGIT960), respectively. The diagnostic values were calculated and compared.ResultsA total of 328 patients were included the study, 272 were diagnosed as TBLN (254 definite TB, 18 probable TB) and 56 cases with Non-TBLN, and 100% (272/272) of TBLN patients obtained diagnosis sampled by CEUS-guided core biopsy. The overall sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of comprehensive diagnosis on the specimens by CEUS-guided core biopsy for TBLN were 100% ( 272/272, 95% CI 98.26–100.00), 94.64% (53/56, 95% CI 84.20–98.61), 98.91% (272/275, 95% CI 96.58–99.72), and 100% (53/53, 95% CI 91.58–100%), respectively. Xpert obtained 93.31% (237/254) of etiology detection rate on the specimens sampling by CEUS-guided biopsy. The etiology detection rate was associated with histopathological caseous necrosis.ConclusionsCurrent examinations on specimens by CEUS-guided core biopsy can achieve a high diagnostic efficacy for TBLN. Pathological differentiation of CEUS-guided biopsy tissue, then followed by Xpert, may be the best pattern for the diagnosis of TBLN in high TB burden areas.

Background Splenectomized patients are at an increased risk for overwhelming post-splenectomy infections typically with encapsulated bacteria. The clinical association between splenectomy and lymph-node tuberculosis is unclear. Case presentation We describe a rare case of disseminated tuberculous lymphadenitis in an 18-year-old woman with history of splenectomy because of hereditary sherocytosis. She was admitted with enlargement of bilateral-cervical and left-axillary lymph nodes and fever. A diagnosis of probable tuberculosis was made based on the findings of fine-needle aspiration. Histology showed granulomas and extensive caseous necrosis, with the site of puncture located at an enlarged lymph node on the right side. The diagnosis was confirmed via nucleic-acid amplification tests following excisional biopsy of the left axillary lymph node. Disseminated tuberculous lymphadenitis was localized in the bilateral neck, right lung hilum, left sub-axillary region, and mediastinum, as detected from contrast-enhanced computed tomography of the neck. Conclusions Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection should be considered in children and adolescents with extensive enlargement of lymph nodes after splenectomy.

Background To investigate the value of multimodal ultrasonography in differentiating tuberculosis from other lymphadenopathy. Methods Sixty consecutive patients with superficial lymphadenopathy treated at our hospital from January 2017 to December 2018 were categorized into four types based on the color Doppler ultrasound, five types based on contrast-enhanced ultrasound, and five types based on elastography. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated of all the three imaging, including color Doppler examination, contrast-enhanced ultrasound and one individual multimodal method, for detecting lymph nodes. Results A total of 60 patients were included in the final analysis. Of those, Mycobacterium tuberculosis was positive in 38 patients and negative in 22 patients. Among the 38 patients who were positive for Mycobacterium tuberculosis, of which 23 had a history of pulmonary tuberculosis, accounting for 60.53% of the positive cases, and the remaining patients did not combine lesions of other organs. Among the 60 superficial lymph nodes, 63.3% presented with tuberculous lymphadenitis. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of the color Doppler examination were 73.68%, 68.18%, and 71.67%, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of contrast-enhanced ultrasound were 89.47%, 63.64% and 80.00%, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of the elastography were 63.16%, 63.64% and 63.33%, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of one individual multimodal method were 42.11%, 95.45% and 61.67%, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of all modes combined were 100.00%, 27.27% and 73.33%, respectively. Conclusion Multimodal ultrasonography has high predictive value for the differential diagnosis of superficial tuberculous lymphadenitis.

The discovery of a cervicofacial swelling is a common concern among the pediatric population with a broad range of potential diagnoses. While infectious origins related to dental infection are frequent, it is crucial not to overlook other systemic causes. Among these causes, cervical tuberculous lymphadenitis (CTL) stands out as one of the most common forms of extrapulmonary tuberculosis. This condition poses a significant diagnostic challenge in children, as it is often asymptomatic and can lead to a misdiagnosis. The aim of this paper is to highlight, through a case report, the diagnostic approach to a lower mandibular swelling in a 10-year-old boy initially diagnosed as cellulitis of dental origin. However, further investigation revealed CTL, confirmed by lymph node biopsy, leading to a 6-month regimen of four drugs for treatment. This uncommon presentation emphasizes the importance of thorough investigation, as the overlap in symptoms with dental infection could potentially lead to misdiagnosis. Dentists can play a crucial role in detecting tuberculosis in cases of cervicofacial swelling. By doing so, they can ensure early diagnosis and promptly refer the patient for appropriate management. The case report underscores the importance of considering tuberculosis in the differential diagnoses of cervicofacial swellings in children, emphasizing comprehensive clinical, radiological, and histopathological assessment for accurate diagnosis and effective treatment.

Tuberculous lymphadenitis is most common cause of lymphadenopathy in developing countries. Although enormous literature is available on various aspects of the disease including cytological patterns and its incidence in others parts of India and in other countries, only limited literature is available regarding its incidence and morphological spectrum on cytology in eastern parts of Uttar Pradesh in Gorakhpur region. The present study was undertaken to estimate the incidence of tuberculous lymphadenitis in our settings along with its morphological spectrum on cytology as well as to determine the utility of culture of fine needle aspirates in addition to cytology and Ziehl-Neelsen (ZN) staining. Four hundred cases of superficial lymphadenopathy were subjected to fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC), and in case, smears were stained with Hematoxylin and eosin (H and E), Giemsa, and ZN stain and categorized into three cytomorphological patterns. All the aspirates were inoculated on two sterile Lowenstein Jensen (LJ) medium. Out of 400 cases of consecutive lymph nodes aspirated, 180 cases (45%) showed features of tuberculous lymphadenitis. Smears revealed epithelioid granulomas with caseous necrosis in maximum cases (40%). On statistical analysis, difference between group I and group II was found to be significant ( < 0.05); while comparison between groups II and III as well as between groups I and III was found to be statistically insignificant. Overall, acid fast bacilli positivity was seen in 51.6% of the cases. FNAC has been proved very safe, highly sensitive, and first line investigation in diagnosing tubercular lymphadenitis. The sensitivity can be further be increased by complementary cytomorphology with acid fast staining. Diagnostic accuracy can further be increased by culture.

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a serious global public health problem in the present. TB also affects other sites (extrapulmonary tuberculosis, EPTB), and accounts for a significant proportion of tuberculosis cases worldwide. In order to comprehensively understand epidemiology of EBTB in China, and improve early diagnosis and treatment, we conducted a large-scale multi-center observational study to assess the demographic data and the prevalence of common EPTB inpatients, and further evaluate the prevalence of EPTB concurrent with Pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) and the associations between multiple EPTB types and gender-age group in China. All consecutive age[greater than or equal to]15yr inpatients with a confirmed diagnosis of EPTB during the period from January 2011 to December 2017 were included in the study. The descriptive statistical analysis included median and quartile measurements for continuous variables, and frequencies and proportions with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for categorical variables. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was used to compare the association of multiple EPTB types between age group and gender. The results showed that the proportion of 15-24 years and 25-34 years in EPTB inpatients were the most and the ratio of male: female was 1.51. Approximately 70% of EPTB inpatients were concurrent with PTB or other types of EPTB. The most common of EPTB was tuberculous pleurisy (50.15%), followed by bronchial tuberculosis (14.96%), tuberculous lymphadenitis of the neck (7.24%), tuberculous meningitis (7.23%), etc. It was found that many EPTB inpatients concurrent with PTB. The highest prevalence of EPTB concurrent with PTB was pharyngeal/laryngeal tuberculosis (91.31%), followed by bronchial tuberculosis (89.52%), tuberculosis of hilar lymph nodes (79.52%), tuberculosis of mediastinal lymph nodes (79.13%), intestinal tuberculosis (72.04%), tuberculous pleurisy (65.31%) and tuberculous meningitis (62.64%), etc. The results from EPTB concurrent with PTB suggested that females EPTB inpatients were less likely to be at higher risk of concurrent PTB (aOR = 0.819, 95%CI:0.803-0.835) after adjusted by age. As age increasing, the trend risk of concurrent PTB decreased (aOR = 0.994, 95%CI: 0.989-0.999) after adjusted by gender. Our study demonstrated that the common EPTB were tuberculous pleurisy, bronchial tuberculosis, tuberculous lymphadenitis of the neck, tuberculous meningitis, etc. A majority of patients with pharyngeal/laryngeal tuberculosis, bronchial tuberculosis, tuberculosis of hilar/mediastinal lymph nodes, intestinal tuberculosis, tuberculous pleurisy, tuberculous meningitis, etc. were concurrent with PTB. Female EPTB inpatients were less likely to be at higher risk of concurrent PTB, and as age increasing, the trend risk of concurrent PTB decreased. The clinicians should be alert to the presence of concurrent tuberculosis in EPTB, and all suspected cases of EPTB should be assessed for concomitant PTB to determine whether the case is infectious and to help for early diagnosis and treatment.

Background Accurate diagnosis of unexplained cervical lymphadenopathy (CLA) using medical images heavily relies on the experience of radiologists, which is even worse for CLA patients in underdeveloped countries and regions, because of lack of expertise and reliable medical history. This study aimed to develop a deep learning (DL) radiomics model based on B-mode and color Doppler ultrasound images for assisting radiologists to improve their diagnoses of the etiology of unexplained CLA. Methods Patients with unexplained CLA who received ultrasound examinations from three hospitals located in underdeveloped areas of China were retrospectively enrolled. They were all pathologically confirmed with reactive hyperplasia, tuberculous lymphadenitis, lymphoma, or metastatic carcinoma. By mimicking the diagnosis logic of radiologists, three DL sub-models were developed to achieve the primary diagnosis of benign and malignant, the secondary diagnosis of reactive hyperplasia and tuberculous lymphadenitis in benign candidates, and of lymphoma and metastatic carcinoma in malignant candidates, respectively. Then, a CLA hierarchical diagnostic model (CLA-HDM) integrating all sub-models was proposed to classify the specific etiology of each unexplained CLA. The assistant effectiveness of CLA-HDM was assessed by comparing six radiologists between without and with using the DL-based classification and heatmap guidance. Results A total of 763 patients with unexplained CLA were enrolled and were split into the training cohort ( n =395), internal testing cohort ( n =171), and external testing cohorts 1 ( n =105) and 2 ( n =92). The CLA-HDM for diagnosing four common etiologies of unexplained CLA achieved AUCs of 0.873 (95% CI: 0.838–0.908), 0.837 (95% CI: 0.789–0.889), and 0.840 (95% CI: 0.789–0.898) in the three testing cohorts, respectively, which was systematically more accurate than all the participating radiologists. With its assistance, the accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of six radiologists with different levels of experience were generally improved, reducing the false-negative rate of 2.2–10% and the false-positive rate of 0.7–3.1%. Conclusions Multi-cohort testing demonstrated our DL model integrating dual-modality ultrasound images achieved accurate diagnosis of unexplained CLA. With its assistance, the gap between radiologists with different levels of experience was narrowed, which is potentially of great significance for benefiting CLA patients in underdeveloped countries and regions worldwide.

Background Despite tuberculous lymphadenitis (TBL) being the most prevalent type of extrapulmonary tuberculosis, there are limitations in laboratory diagnosis of TBL due to high cost, inadequate diagnostic efficacy and feasibility. Xpert MTB/RIF (Xpert) assay is a design-locked, molecular diagnostic technique that detects Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) genome and rifampicin resistance by targeting rpoB gene and mutations within the gene. Currently, there is limited evidence validating Xpert assay usage for diagnosing TBL in Bangladesh. Therefore, in this study, we evaluated diagnostic efficacy of Xpert, considering composite reference standard (CRS), i.e. combination of acid-fast bacilli (AFB) microscopy, culture, Xpert assay and cytology, as gold standard, and compared it to cytology. Methods AFB microscopy, culture, cytology, and Xpert assay were conducted on fine needle aspirates collected from 523 presumptive TBL patients. Genomic DNA was extracted from bacterial colonies of culture-positive specimens. In order to confirm presence of MTB, PCR and gel electrophoresis were performed on extracted DNA to detect RD9 region of MTB DNA. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and Cohen’s kappa coefficient were determined, and McNemar’s test was performed for Xpert and cytology with respect to CRS. Additionally, latent class analysis was performed to estimate sensitivity and specificity of all four diagnostic modalities. Results Xpert showed sensitivity and specificity of 72.9% (261/358) and 100% (165/165) respectively against CRS, with 69.8% sensitivity and 97.1% specificity using Bayesian latent class modeling. In contrast, cytology demonstrated sensitivity and specificity of 84.1% (301/358) and 100% (165/165) against CRS, and 81.9% and 99.9% upon latent class analysis, respectively. Furthermore, Xpert showed moderate agreement with cytology (κ = 0.45, p  < 0.0001), fair agreement with culture (κ = 0.30, p  < 0.0001), and poor agreement with AFB microscopy (κ = 0.09, p  < 0.0001). Conclusion Our study findings validate routinely using Xpert assay in TBL diagnosis and enable detecting patients with low bacterial load. However, further assessment via cytology is recommended for confirmation in Xpert-negative patients having patent symptoms. Clinical trial Not applicable.