Tuberculous pericarditis
| Tuberculous pericarditis | |
|---|---|
| Classification and external resources | |
| MeSH | D010495 |
Tuberculous pericarditis is a form of pericarditis.
Pericarditis caused by tuberculosis is difficult to diagnose, because definitive diagnosis requires culturing Mycobacterium tuberculosis from aspirated pericardial fluid or pericardial biopsy, which requires high technical skill and is often not diagnostic (the yield from culture is low even with optimum specimens). The Tygerberg scoring system helps the clinician to decide whether pericarditis is due to tuberculosis or whether it is due to another cause: night sweats (1 point), weight loss (1 point), fever (2 point), serum globulin > 40g/l (3 points), blood total leucocyte count <10 x 109/l (3 points); a total score of 6 or more is highly suggestive of tuberculous pericarditis.[1] Pericardial fluid with an interferon-γ level greater than 50pg/ml is highly specific for tuberculous pericarditis.
References
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<references />, or <references group="..." />- ↑ Reuter H, Burgess L, van Vuuren W, Doubell A. (2006). "Diagnosing tuberculous pericarditis". Q J Med. 99 (12): 827–39. doi:10.1093/qjmed/hcl123. PMID 17121764.
