Adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and sepsis are known, life-threatening complications of miliary tuberculosis. This report describes a patient with miliary tuberculosis who rapidly developed an acute tuberculous empyema. She had a fulminant course culminating in ARDS, sepsis and subsequent death. This case highlights the rare association of acute empyema with miliary tuberculosis.
James R Runo, Derek C Welch, Erik M Ness, Ivan M Robbins, and Aaron P Milstone.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn., USA. james.runo@mcmail.vanderbilt.edu
Respiration. 2003 Sep 1; 70 (5): 529-32.
AbstractAdult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and sepsis are known, life-threatening complications of miliary tuberculosis. This report describes a patient with miliary tuberculosis who rapidly developed an acute tuberculous empyema. She had a fulminant course culminating in ARDS, sepsis and subsequent death. This case highlights the rare association of acute empyema with miliary tuberculosis.Copyright 2003 S. Karger AG, Basel