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Tuberculosis intoxication in children and adolescents
Last reviewed: 06.07.2025
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Tuberculosis intoxication in children and adolescents occurs when a person is infected with tuberculosis and develops a primary tuberculosis infection without local manifestations determined by radiological and other research methods.
Tuberculosis intoxication is detected in children (adolescents) with positive reactions to tuberculin for the first time, increasing during observation, and hyperergic reactions. It is characterized by the activity of the tuberculosis process and is accompanied by the following symptoms:
- deterioration of the general condition of the child (teenager), expressed in a periodic increase in body temperature to subfebrile levels, loss of appetite, the appearance of neurovegetative disorders (increased nervous excitability or its suppression, headache, tachycardia);
- a slight increase in peripheral lymph nodes (micropolyadenia) with signs of periadenitis;
- slight enlargement of the liver (less often - the spleen);
- cessation of physiological weight gain or weight deficit;
- tendency to intercurrent diseases;
- changes in the peripheral blood picture (mild increase in ESR, shift in the leukocyte formula to the left, eosinophilia, lymphopenia);
- changes in the immunological status (a decrease in the number of T-lymphocytes and their functional activity).
The specificity of the described functional disorders should be confirmed by a thorough examination of the child (adolescent) to exclude non-specific diseases. During the examination, it is necessary to use modern diagnostic methods, including radiography in direct and lateral projections, tomography of the mediastinum in various projections, bronchoscopy, tuberculin provocation tests (hemotuberculin, immunotuberculin, etc.) before and after subcutaneous administration of tuberculin - 10-20 TE PPD-L. as well as bacteriological examination.
Diagnosis of tuberculosis intoxication in children and adolescents includes mandatory examination to exclude rare localizations of tuberculosis with damage to the abdominal organs or small forms of tuberculosis of the intrathoracic lymph nodes.
Differential diagnostics are carried out with chronic non-specific lesions of the ENT organs, helminthic invasions and other diseases accompanied by signs of general intoxication syndrome.
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