Tuberculosis – it is a severe infectious disease that is a widespread pathology throughout the world. The ability of Koch's bacillus, the causative agent of tuberculosis, to survive in the environment for a long time, without being influenced by external factors, causes a high epidemiological danger of tuberculosis. For about 20 years, an epidemic of tuberculosis has been observed in our country. Nevertheless, infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis is present in most healthy people, while the risk of developing a clinically pronounced process in an infected person does not exceed 10%. What symptoms of tuberculosis indicate the development of this disease?
The main symptoms of tuberculosis will help to suspect a pathology
As you know, one of the features of tuberculosis is the ability of mycobacteria to cause pathological processes in almost all tissues and organs of the human body. But among all tuberculous pathology, 85% of human lungs are affected, and only the remaining 15% relate to the extrapulmonary localization of the pathological process. The symptoms of tuberculosis in many ways resemble the clinical picture of other diseases in which the lungs are affected, but at the same time, there are & nbsp; some features of the clinical manifestations of pulmonary tuberculosis, indicating the development of this particular pathological process.
Symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis:
- symptoms of intoxication – the earliest signs of tuberculosis;
- fever – characteristic symptom of pulmonary tuberculosis;
- what bronchopulmonary symptoms of tuberculosis may appear.
Symptoms of intoxication – the earliest signs of tuberculosis
The earliest symptoms of tuberculosis, like any other infectious disease, are symptoms of intoxication. Intoxication of the body in this pathology is due to the influence of toxins secreted by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and the influence of tissue decay products on human organs and systems. Patients complain of increased weakness and fatigue, especially in the afternoon, decreased or even complete lack of appetite, increased sweating, both during the daytime and at night, chills and tachycardia. Somewhat later, complaints of weight loss may join, which begins even in the early stages of the disease and may have varying degrees of severity.
Fever – characteristic symptom of pulmonary tuberculosis
Fever is one of the most characteristic symptoms of tuberculosis, which occurs in more than 80% of patients with this pathology. Body temperature depends on the severity of changes in the lungs:
- with limited lesions, the temperature may be subfebrile or normal;
- in common processes, the temperature curve is constantly changing, moving from a weakening to an intermittent one, often with steep rises.
Chills and increased sweating accompanying fevers are also characteristic symptoms of tuberculosis. Such a symptom complex is called hectic fever, which greatly exhausts the patient. The temperature can rise several times during the day, but most often the jumps in the temperature curve are observed in the evening.
What bronchopulmonary symptoms of tuberculosis may occur
When the human lung is affected by the tuberculous process, bronchopulmonary symptoms of tuberculosis are characteristic, which include cough, hemoptysis, shortness of breath and chest pain:
- The cough in TB patients may initially be dry or with some light-colored frothy sputum. The frequency, sonority and productivity of coughing depend on the nature and severity of the tuberculous process. Cough has nothing to do with the time of day, while the release of a large amount of sputum, the so-called cough "full mouth" indicates the presence of such a complication as pleural empyema with the formation of a bronchopleural fistula;
- hemoptysis is a characteristic symptom of fresh infiltrative processes, while the release of a large amount of blood (more than 50 ml.) is already pulmonary bleeding, characteristic of chronic fibrous-cavernous pulmonary tuberculosis;
- with widespread tuberculosis, inspiratory dyspnea may occur, which is associated with a decrease in the respiratory surface and proliferation of connective tissue in the lungs;
- chest pain is an infrequent symptom of pulmonary tuberculosis, its appearance may be associated with damage to the parietal and diaphragmatic pleura.
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