Chapter 202 Tuberculosis Flashcards
If untreated, the disease may be fatal
within 5 years in 50–65% of cases.
(the bovine tubercle bacillus—characteristically resistant to pyrazinamide, once an important cause of TB transmitted by unpasteurized milk, and currently the cause of a small percentage of human cases worldwide)
M. bovis
(the “vole” bacillus, a less virulent and rarely encountered organism)
M. microti
(a bacillus infecting seals and sea lions in the Southern Hemisphere and recently isolated from humans)
M. pinni- pedii
(isolated from banded mongooses in southern Africa),
M. mungi
(a rare isolate from East African cases that produces unusual smooth colonies on solid media and is considered closely related to a supposed progenitor type).
M. canetti
is due mainly to the organisms’ high content of mycolic acids, long-chain cross-linked fatty acids, and other cell-wall lipids.
Acid fastness
content (65.6%) is indicative of an aerobic “lifestyle.”
high guanine-plus-cytosine
The most infectious patients have cavitary pulmonary disease or, much less commonly, laryngeal TB and produce sputum containing as many as
105–107 AFB/mL.
Bacilli, however, may persist for years before reactivating to produce _____, which, because of frequent cavitation, is more often infectious than is primary disease.
secondary (or postprimary) TB
Clinical illness directly following infection is classified as ____ and is common among children in the first few years of life and among immunocompromised persons.
primary TB
The incidence among women peaks at
25–34 years of age.
About 2–4 weeks after infection, two host responses to M. tuberculosis develop: a
- macrophage-activating CMI response
2. tissue-damaging response.
is a T cell–mediated phe- nomenon resulting in the activation of macrophages that are capable of killing and digesting tubercle bacilli.
macrophage-activating response
is the result of a delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) reaction to various bacillary antigens; it destroys unactivated macrophages that contain multiplying bacilli but also causes caseous necrosis of the involved tissues
tissue-damaging response