Miliary tuberculosis with no pulmonary involvement in myelodysplastic syndromes: a curable, yet rarely diagnosed, disease: case report and review of the literature

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although tuberculosis is not uncommon among patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), only a few reports of such patients suffering from miliary tuberculosis (MT) exist. MT often presents as a fever of unknown origin and it is a curable disease, yet fatal if left untreated.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report a case of MT with no clinical or laboratory indications of pulmonary involvement in a patient with MDS, and review the relevant literature. <it>Mycobacterium tuberculosis </it>was isolated from the liquid culture of a bone marrow aspirate.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Even if the initial diagnostic investigation for a fever of obscure etiology is negative, MT should not be excluded from the differential diagnosis list. Since it is a curable disease, persistent and vigorous diagnostic efforts are warranted. In suspected cases, mycobacterial blood cultures should be collected as soon as possible after hospital admission and early bone marrow aspirate with mycobacterial cultures is advocated.</p

Evaluation of GenoType Mycobacteria Direct Assay in Comparison with Gen-Probe Mycobacterium tuberculosis Amplified Direct Test and GenoType MTBDRplus for Direct Detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex in Clinical Samples▿

Three molecular assays were evaluated for the direct detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex bacteria in 125 respiratory and 22 nonrespiratory samples. The overall sensitivities obtained were as follows: GenoType MTBDRplus, 97.9%; GenoType Mycobacteria Direct, 93.7%; Gen-Probe Mycobacterium tuberculosis Amplified Direct Test, 89.6%. The specificity of the assays used was 100%

Report of 2 indigenous cases of leprosy from a European country: use of polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of hsp65 gene for identification of Mycobacterium leprae directly from a clinical sample

In this article, we report on 2 indigenous cases of leprosy detected in a European country. We also report on the use of polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of hsp65 gene for rapid identification of Mycobacterium leprae directly froth the clinical sample. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved