Discrepancies in Chest X-Ray among Patients with Tuberculous Cervical Lymphadenitis

Abstract Tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis is not an uncommon entity when it comes to otolaryngology practice and that too in Bangladesh. In tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis the bacilli may reach the neck nodes from the lungs as well, through circulation. This study was done in the department of ENT and Head Neck Surgery, Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Dhaka, from January 2012 to January 2013 and was designed to find out chest x-ray abnormalities in apparently chest asymptomatic confirmed tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis without associate disease. The diagnosis of tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis was confirmed by fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) and/or smear for acid-fast bacillus, and chest x-ray (PA view) was done in all confirmed cases (n=183). (13%) and abnormal chest x-ray in 51 cases (27.87%). Pulmonary infiltration, the commonest radiological finding was detected in 32 cases (17.49%), hilar enlargement in 17 cases (9.29%), right paratracheal opacity in 2 (1.09%), obliteration of costophrenic angles in 3 cases (1.64%) and miliary mottling in one case (0.55%). Upper zonal predominance of lung parenchymal infiltrations was noted in 12.57% and right lung involvement in 16.39%. Single zone was affected in 9.84% cases and multiple zones were involved in 7.65% cases. We observed right hilar enlargement in 6.56%, left hilar lymphadenopathy in 4.37% and bilateral hilar lymphadenopathy in 2.73% cases. We concluded that routine chest x-ray PA view should be done in all tuberculous lymphadenitis before categorization and starting of treatment