What are the signs and symptoms of TB infection?

Question

Hi doctor,

During the fitness examination, I learned that I have bilateral apical pleural thickening in the chest X-ray, but neither in the past nor current, have I had any health complaints. So, the further investigation I did was a PPD skin test and QuantiFERON TB gold test, which is positive 20 mm and 3.42 IU respectively. Kindly advise me if that is suggestive of a TB infection. Do I need to take anti-tubercular medicine? Can I prevent this from becoming active?

Please help.

Answer 1

Hi,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

I have gone through your case and have the following opinion. Your blood test and skin test are surely positive and are indicative of active tuberculosis. Your X-ray shows minimal pleural thickening, which shows past lesions. Now the issue is that you might have had subclinical TB in the past, which you did not come to know. Also, the skin and blood tests do not tell you that you have TB of the lungs.

You might have TB somewhere else, which we are missing on X-ray. You should get a CT chest or a bronchoscopic biopsy to find out if there is TB in the lungs. Then, get an ultrasound of the abdomen done to look for intestinal TB. Since QuantiFERON is positive, we cannot simply neglect it. It might be false, but still, we need to investigate. Medicines will be needed once we find out if there is an active lesion.

I hope this helps.

Thank you.