Table of Contents
- Overview
- Symptoms
- Treatment
- Prevention
- Images
TB; Tuberculosis - pulmonary
Symptoms
The primary stage of TB usually doesn't cause symptoms. When symptoms of pulmonary TB occur, they may include:
- Cough (usually cough up mucus)
- Coughing up blood
- Excessive sweating, especially at night
- Fatigue
- Fever
- Unintentional weight loss
Other symptoms that may occur with this disease:
- Breathing difficulty
- Chest pain
- Wheezing
Signs and tests
Examination may show:
- Clubbing of the fingers or toes (in people with advanced disease)
- Enlarged or tender lymph nodes in the neck or other areas
- Fluid around a lung (pleural effusion)
- Unusual breath sounds (crackles)
Tests may include:
-
Biopsy of the affected tissue (rare) Bronchoscopy Chest CT scan Chest x-ray - Interferon-gamma blood test such as the QFT-Gold test to test for TB infection
- Sputum examination and
cultures Thoracentesis Tuberculin skin test
Images
Previous Section
Review Date: 12/07/2010
Reviewed By: David C. Dugdale, III, MD, Professor of Medicine, Division of
General Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington
School of Medicine; Jatin M. Vyas, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor in
Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Assistant in Medicine, Division
of Infectious Disease, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts
General Hospital. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical
Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.
A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, also known as the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission (www.urac.org)
