CHILDHOOD TUBERCULOSIS: STUDY OF CLINICAL PROFILE OF TUBERCULOSIS IN PEDIATRIC PATIENTS AND CORRELATION OF CB-NAAT RESULT IN CLINICALLY SUSPECTED TUBERCULOSIS

Introduction: Tuberculosis is a chronic infectious disease caused by predominantly Mycobacterium tubercle bacilli. Pediatric tuberculosis is among the top 10 causes of death in children. India accounts for one fourth of the global tuberculosis burden, standing one among the thirty high TB burden countries. Hence, children in India are at increased risk of acquiring TB infection and developing TB disease and death following infection. Latent TB infection in children may be reactivated in later life and become active adulthood tuberculosis and thereby a potent TB reservoir in the community. Aim: To study clinical profile of tuberculosis in pediatric patients and correlation of CB-NAAT result in clinically suspected tuberculosisat tertiary care center. Method: Prospective Observational study from1 August 2020 to 31 August 2022. Result: Out of 52 patients cough was presenting symptom of 19(36.53%), fever was present in 25(48.07%), loss of weight >5% in last 3 month was present in 12(23.07%),fever(83.8 %) was most dominant symptom. Out of 52 patients, tachypnoea was presenting sign in 5(9.6%), ascites was present in 5(9.6%) and lymphadenopathy for more than 2 weeks were present in 25(48.07%). Out of 52 patients Anaemia was present in 42(80.76%), High ESR was present in 22(42.30%) and Mantoux test was positive in 16(30.76%). Conclusion: Reliable diagnosis of tuberculosiscan be done by clinical parameters like presence of tachypnea, fever and lymphadenopathy. CB NAAT in correlation to clinical parameters is very useful for diagnosis of tubercular cases.