Abstract:

Objective To study the clinical features of CT characteristics of pediatric pulmonary tuberculosis.Methods The clinical and imaging data (including age, sex, clinical manifestations, vaccination history, contact history and laboratory examination) of 734 children with pulmonary tuberculosis diagnosed in Beijing Children Hospital affiliated to Capital Medical University from July 2006 to December 2014 were retrospectively analyzed. The CT characteristics and clinical features were analyzed based on CT typing.Results Among the 734 children, 159 (21.7%) were diagnosed by pathogeny or biopsy. Primary pulmonary tuberculosis and tracheobronchial tuberculosis were the most common (365 cases, 50.4%), followed by two or more kinds of CT typing (199 cases, 27.3%). For infants and young children less than 3 years old, primary pulmonary tuberculosis and tracheobronchial tuberculosis (189 cases, 26.1%) were the most common, while tuberculous pleurisy (94 cases, 13.0%) was common in adolescent children aged 7-14 years. Tuberculous meningitis (109 cases, 34.5%) and extrapulmonary dissemination involving two or more sites (103 cases, 32.6%) were common among the cases with extrapulmonary tuberculosis. 192 (26.2%) cases were complicated with other diseases.Conclusion Pediatric pulmonary tuberculosis cases with different ages have different CT typing and are often complicated with extrapulmonary dissemination. The CT manifestations of pediatric pulmonary tuberculosis have their own characteristics and age distribution characteristics.

Key words: Tuberculosis, pulmonary, Child, Tomography scanners, X-ray computed, Diagnostic imaging, Classification, Data interpretation, statistical