Tuberculose em 228 casos de autópsias

Abstract

Objectives: Tuberculosis is the main cause of death by a single infectious agent in the world. However, few studies have been published about the anatomopathological aspects of tuberculosis (TB) in the organism as a whole. The objective of this article is to analyze the anatomopathological characteristics of deceased patients diagnosed with tuberculosis revealed by autopsy and their relationship with epidemiological and clinical aspects. Methodology: Longitudinal, retrospective, descriptive study of data from records files and reports files of tuberculosis cases from the autopsy at the pathology service of Universidade Federal do Ceará between 1959 and 2015. Results: There were 7236 autopsies with 228 cases of tuberculosis (3.2%). In 39% there was no clinical suspicion of tuberculosis and 16% were suspected. Male gender predominated and an average age of 34.4 years. The most associated diseases were malnutrition (21.1%), Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) (16.9%), cancer (11.3%), liver cirrhosis (7.0%). Disseminated tuberculosis occurred in 53.5%, pulmonary in 35.1% and extrapulmonary in 11.4%, the central nervous system was the most affected with meningitis (46.2%) and meningoencephalite (23.1%). Conclusions: Tuberculosis has not been clinically diagnosed in a significant number of cases. Younger age group and more cases in the 1980s and 90s revealed an important association between AIDS and Tuberculosis. Tuberculosis had a varied, complex and severe presentation.