A Study of Ultrasound and Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Thoracic Tuberculosis in the Pediatric Population: Moving Beyond Conventional Radiology

Abstract

Background: Early diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) is necessary for effective treatment. In primary pulmonary TB, chest radiography remains the mainstay for the diagnosis of parenchymal disease, while computed tomography (CT) is more sensitive for detecting lymphadenopathy. Aim and Objective: Ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging in thoracic tuberculosis in the pediatric population:Method and material: This observational study was conducted in the Department of Radio-Diagnosis and medicine, Mayo Institute of Medical Sciences, Gadia, Barabanki, UP, India. The data was collected from 40 patients with  from the OPD of the hospital.In post-primary pulmonary TB, CT is the method of choice toreveal early bronchogenic spread. Result: Chest CT has a reported detection rate of 80% in patients with active tuberculosis and 89% in patients with inactive tuberculosis. The combined use of chest CT and the interferon gamma release assay is considered more effective than the conventional approach of chest radiography and the tuberculin skin test in differentiating between active infection, latent infection, and non-infection. Conclusion:   CT and MRI are often performed for clinically diagnosed tuberculosis and the detection of various complications. MRI and US should be used for mediastinal lymph node detection where infrastructure and expertise are available because these modalities do not involve radiation risks. In low-resource settings where CT and MRI are not available, chest radiography and US hold the fort for radiology. For the future, advances in imaging technology hold promise to perform faster and more accurate cross-sectional imaging with no more radiation risks than a conventional radiograph.

Keywords: Ultrasound, CT, MRI, Tuberculosis