Abstrait

Disseminated Tuberculosis in an AIDS Patient: Autopsy Finding From North Karnataka, India

Dinesh Kulkarni, Ritesh Sulegaon, Shashidhar Chulki, and Deepak Suntanoor

A forty six year old convict serving a life term was admitted with cough, fever and abdominal pain. Investigations revealed, he was immunocompromised with pulmonary tuberculosis and pleural effusion. Autopsy findings were pleural effusion, bilateral fibrocaseous and miliary tuberculosis with ascites. Microscopic examination of pieces of organs showed non reactive granulomas with presence of Acid fast bacilli on ZN staining.HIV epidemics are more severe in the southern half of the country and the far North East. The highest HIV prevalence rates are found in Maharashtra in the west, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka in the south, and Manipur and Nagaland in the North East. With increasing incidence of pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis, physicians should remain suspicious of tuberculosis in patients of AIDS. The major underlying pathologies are either preventable or treatable conditions. There is an urgent need for attention towardsthe diagnosis, issue of therapy, and care of HIV disease in developing countries. Reducing mortality in patients with AIDS from infections must be highest public health policy in India. The case is being presented because autopsy in a known HIV positive patient was performed for the first time in our institute in Northern Karnataka and the pathological findings were of full blown AIDS with disseminated tuberculosis, which were comparable with others authors who have worked on autopsy in HIV/AIDS.