Background: Prevalence of extrapulmonary tuberculosis (TB) increases along with escalated number of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection. Patients with extrapulmonary TB and HIV infection are at risk of rapid deterioration and higher death rate. Identifying clinical characteristics of extrapulmonary TB is important to initiate early management.
Objective: To find out the proportion of HIV-positive in extrapulmonary TB patients, to recognize the demographic pattern of extrapulmonary TB patients and to identify clinical characteristics of EPTB in HIV-positive and negative patients.
Methods: This is a cross-sectional study using medical record data of extrapulmonary TB patients from all units in Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital, Jakarta during 2008 to 2012. All adult extrapulmonary TB patients who had complete medical record data and their anti-HIV ELISA examined were included. Data were processed descriptively
using SPSS 17.0 software.
Results: This study obtained data from 620 extrapulmonary TB patients, 75.97% of which were HIV-positive. Most patients were between 18-40 years old, 76.6% were male, 57.7% graduated from high school or equivalent and 46.13% were unemployed. The most common extrapulmonary TB in HIV-positive subjects was lymphadenitis (42.59%) and in HIV-negative was meningitis (36.18%). Major systemic clinical presentations include weight loss, prolonged fever and fatigue. Clinical characteristics of each extrapulmonary TB type were similar in HIV-positive and HIV-negative patients.
Conclusion: Extrapulmonary TB was more common in HIV-positive patients. Most extrapulmonary TB patients were male, 18-40 years old, high school or equivalent graduates and unemployed. Clinical characteristics of each extrapulmonary TB type were similar in HIV-positive and HIV-negative patients.
Key words: Clinical characteristics, extrapulmonary tuberculosis, HIV.