Tuberculosis Flashcards
True or False? Tuberculosis is not curable, only preventable.
False - it is both curable and preventable
In Canada, who is most affected by tuberculosis?
Canadian-born Indigenous peoples
What is the causative organism of tuberculosis?
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
How is M. tuberculosis spread? (4)
- Airborne via coughing or sneezing
- Host inhales droplet nuclei
- Close contacts most likely to be infected
- With prolonged contact - risk of infection can be up to 30%
What is the morphology of M. tuberculosis?
Growing rate?
- Acid fast bacillus (Ziehl-Neelson stain)
- Impervious to gram-staining (can appear weakly gram +) - Slow growing (doubling time = 20 hours)
What are the risk factors for tuberculosis? (7)
- Foreign born from highly endemic areas
- Canadian Indigenous people
- Close contacts
- Homelessness
- Incarceration
- Alcoholism, IVDU, malnutrition
- Co-infection with HIV-TB and HIV act synergistically
Once infected with M. tuberculosis - lifetime risk of active TB is approximately 10%.
What are the age and immunosuppression risk factors here? (2 each)
- Greatest risk is during first 2 years after infection
- < 2 years old and >65 years old - 2-5x greater risk of active disease
- Immunosuppression - 4-16x risk of active disease
- HIV-infected - 100x risk of active disease
The likelihood of a tuberculosis transmission event will depend on what 2 things?
- The number of infectious droplet nuclei per volume of air (infectious particle density)
- Length of time that the uninfected individual spends breathing that air
The probability of tuberculosis transmission increases with the following: (7)
- Bacterial burden (smear positivity) in the source patient
- Cavitary or upper lung-zone disease on chest radiograph in the source patient
- Laryngeal disease in the source patient
- Amount and severity of cough in the source patient
- Duration of exposure of the contact
- Crowding and poor room ventillation
- Delays in diagnosis and/or effective treatment of the source patient
What is the pathophysiology of tuberculosis? (more like, what is the immune response?) (4)
- Controlling infection requires T-lymphocyte response - mainly CD4+ cells
- T-lymphocytes activate macrophages that engulf and kill mycobacterium
- TNF-alpha and TNF-gamma are important cytokines in coordinating immune response
- Organism has many mechanisms for evading host immune response
Primary infection of tuberculosis occurs by inhalation of droplet nuceli which reach alveoli. Progression to clinical disease depends on: (3)
- Infecting dose (# of organisms inhaled)
- Virulence of the organism
- Cell-mediated immune response
Macrophages can either kill, or fail to kill the tuberculosis organism. What happens in either case?
- If macrophages inhibit or kill bacteria - infection is controlled
- If organism is not killed, macrophages eventually ruptures, spilling bacteria which are then phagocytized until immune response generated
In approximately 3 weeks after infection, T-lymphocytes are presented with M. tuberculosis antigen. What happens from there? (4)
- T-cells become activated and secrete INF-gamma
- This stimulates macrophages to become -cidal
- Large number of -cidal macrophages surround the solid caseous tuberculosis foci
- Process of creating activated microbiocidal macrophages is called cell mediated immunity (CMI)
During tuberculosis infection, DTH (delayed-type hypersensitivity) occurs at the same time. What is this/what’s happening? (4)
- This is a cytotoxic immune process that kills nonactivated immature macrophages that allow bacillary replication
- Occurs via T-lymphocytes
- Bacteria released from immature phagocytes are killed by activated macrophages
- Macrophages begin to form granulomas which contain organisms
Once tuberculosis infection is largely under control and replication declines, what occurs next ? (4)
- Inflammatory response can produce tissue necrosis, calcification and lymph node enlargement
- Positive tuberculin skin test occurs when activated lymphocytes reach an adequate number and tissue hypersensitivity results
- 90% of pts have no further clinical manifestations
- 5% progressive primary disease - pneumonia with spread to meninges or other organs
Reactivation disease (tuberculosis) occurs in about 10% of cases. What is happening here? (4)
- Most often in apices of the lungs (high oxygen content and poor local immunity)
- Orgnanisms within granuloma emerge and multiply extracellularly
- Caseating granulomas which liquefy and spread, producing cavities
- If untreated, destroy the lung - hypoxia, respiratory acidosis and death
What extrapulmonary regions are most affected in tuberculosis infection? (2)
- Lymphatic and pleural disease are most common
- Bone (often the vertebrae), joint, genitourinary and meningeal
What is miliary TB?
Massive numbers of organisms in the bloodstream causing widely disseminated TB - medical emergency
What is the mechanism by which HIV increases the risk of tuberculosis disease?
As CD4+ cells multiply in response to TB, HIV multiplies within these cells and destroys them thereby depleting the cells that control TB
What are the signs and symptoms of tuberculosis? (7)
- Gradual onset
- Weight loss
- Fever
- Cough
- Fatigue
- Nightsweats
- Frank hemoptysis
With tuberculosis, people may not seek medical attention until __________ occurs. At that point, what’s already happening?
hemoptysis
Large cavities and large number of organisms - not looking too good for the patient
Tuberculosis exams:
What is seen during a chest exam?
WBCs?
Chest x-ray?
- Chest exam - dullness to percussion, rales
- Moderated increase in WBCs - lymphocyte predominance
- CXR - nodular infiltrates (apices), cavitation
How is TB diagnosed? (3)
- Mantoux test - TB skin test
- Uses purified protein derivative (PPD) - Read in 48-72 hours
- Measure the bump, not the redness
What is done during treatment of tuberculosis? (4)
- Isolation to prevent spread
- Drugs to cure
- Adherence - DOT: directly observed therapy
- Identification of contacts
___________ therapy is required for active TB
Combination
TB has 3 subpopulations of microorganisms with different susceptibility to drugs. What are these 3 subpopulations?
- Extracelluar - rapidly dividing; within cavities
- Within granulomas; semidominant with occasional bursts of metabolic activity
- Intracellular within macrophages
For the extracellular subpopulation of TB microorganism, what are the best drugs to treat? (3)
- Isoniazid (INH)
- Rifampin
- Streptomycin
For the ‘within granulomas’ subpopulation of TB microorganism, what are the best drugs to treat? (3)
- Pyrazinamide best drug
- Rifampin
- Isoniazid
For the ‘intracellular within macrophages’ subpopulation of TB microorganism, what are the best drugs to treat? (3)
- Rifampin
- Isoniazid
- Quinolones
Treatment of latent TB infection reduces lifetime risk from __% to _%
10; 1
What are the drug treatments of latent TB infection? For how long? (2)
- Rifampin daily x 4 months (4R)
- Rifapentine and INH once weekly x 3 months (3HP)
If unable to use a rifamycin based regimen for treatment of latent TB infection, what then, is used? (2)
- INH daily for 9 months (9H)
- When 9H cannot be used - 6 month daily INH (6H)