Brief Article
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World J Clin Pediatr. Nov 8, 2013; 2(4): 70-76
Published online Nov 8, 2013. doi: 10.5409/wjcp.v2.i4.70
Pediatric vs adult pulmonary tuberculosis: A retrospective computed tomography study
Prasad Thotton Veedu, Ashu Seith Bhalla, Sreenivas Vishnubhatla, Sushil Kumar Kabra, Arundeep Arora, Divya Singh, Arun Kumar Gupta
Prasad Thotton Veedu, Ashu Seith Bhalla, Arundeep Arora, Divya Singh, Arun Kumar Gupta, Department of Radiodiagnosis, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi 110029, India
Sreenivas Vishnubhatla, Department of Biostatistics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi 110029, India
Sushil Kumar Kabra, Department of Pediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi 110029, India
Author contributions: Thotton Veedu P, Bhalla AS and Gupta AK were responsible for performing the radiological investigation and involved in image and data analysis; Kabra SK performed the clinical evaluation of the patients; Vishnubhatla S performed the statistical analysis; Arora A and Singh D were involved in analysis of imaging and manuscript preparation.
Correspondence to: Ashu Seith Bhalla, Additional Professor, Department of Radiodiagnosis, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi 110029, India. ashubhalla1@yahoo.com
Telephone: +91-11-265949258 Fax: +91-11-26588641
Received: July 28, 2013
Revised: September 25, 2013
Accepted: October 15, 2013
Published online: November 8, 2013
Processing time: 102 Days and 19.3 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Primary tuberculosis in children was traditionally thought to be distinct from reactivation tuberculosis in terms of location, pattern and severity. On the contrary, aggressive forms of pulmonary tuberculosis akin to adult forms are increasingly seen in pediatric clinical practice especially in adolescents. Our study revealed that similar to older patients, children with tuberculosis are equally prone to develop significant destructive lung changes with severe sequelae. Having longer life expectancy the impact is much more severe in children. Moreover, the cavitating lesions with high bacterial load make them highly infective and pose an important threat to community health.