Temporal trends in the misdiagnosis rates between Crohn’s disease and intestinal tuberculosis

Table 2 Characteristics of patients finally diagnosed with intestinal tuberculosis who were initially misdiagnosed as Crohn’s disease; final diagnostic criteria for intestinal tuberculosis and medication for Crohn’s disease before correct diagnosis n (%)

	Final ITB group1 (n = 83)
Diagnostic criteria of ITB
Positive culture of M. Tb alone	40 (48.2)
Positive AFB smear alone	1 (1.2)
Positive culture of M. Tb + Positive AFB smear	1 (1.2)
Caseating granuloma alone	1 (1.2)
Improvement after empirical anti-tuberculosis	40 (48.2)
treatment in patients without the above findings
Medication for CD before definite diagnosis of TB
No medication	21 (25.3)
5-ASA alone	42 (50.6)
5-ASA + Corticosteroids	12 (14.5)
5-ASA + Thiopurines	1 (1.2)
5-ASA + Corticosteroids + Thiopurines	4 (4.8)
Medication given, but unavailable records	3 (3.6)

¹Final ITB group: Intestinal tuberculosis patients initially misdiagnosed as Crohn’s disease. 5-ASA: 5-amino salicylic acids; AFB: Acid-Fast Bacilli; CD: Crohn’s disease; ITB: Intestinal tuberculosis; M. Tb: Mycobacterium tuberculosis; TB: Tuberculosis.