What are the symptoms of tuberculosis relapse?

Tuberculosis poses a serious threat to human health, so in daily life, we should pay attention to active treatments for these diseases. After all, these diseases sometimes have the possibility of recurrence, and often manifest as general discomfort, fatigue, irritability, loss of appetite and other problems. Some people may also have long-term high fever.

1. Systemic symptoms

1. Symptoms of mild toxicity and autonomic nervous system disorders, such as general discomfort, fatigue, weakness, inability to carry out daily work, irritability, palpitations, loss of appetite, weight loss, and irregular menstruation in women.

2. Fever is often one of the early symptoms of tuberculosis. The changes in body temperature can be as follows:

(1) The body temperature is unstable. Even slight physical labor can cause fever, and the body temperature often cannot return to normal even after 30 minutes of rest.

(2) Long-term low-grade fever, more common in the afternoon and evening, returning to normal the next morning, accompanied by fatigue and discomfort.

(3) When the lesions progress and spread rapidly, the fever becomes more pronounced, and chills may occur, with the fever reaching 39-40 degrees Celsius.

(4) Female patients have elevated body temperature before menstruation and the temperature does not return to normal after menstruation.

3. Night sweats. It often occurs in critically ill patients, who sweat all over their body when falling asleep or waking up. In severe cases, their clothes are completely wet, accompanied by a sense of exhaustion.

4. Sometimes the first symptom of pulmonary tuberculosis in infants and young children is wheezing.

2. Local symptoms

1. Cough and sputum. The early cough is mild, with no sputum or a small amount of mucus sputum. When the lesion expands and cavities are formed, the sputum becomes purulent and the amount is large. If bronchial tuberculosis occurs, the cough will worsen; if bronchial stenosis occurs, there will be localized wheezing. When bronchial lymphadenopathy compresses the bronchi, it may cause choking cough or wheezing.

2. Hemoptysis. About 1/3-1/2 of patients experience hemoptysis. The amount of hemoptysis varies. The inflammation of the lesions increases the permeability of capillaries, which can cause blood in sputum or blood in the sputum. When small blood vessels are injured, moderate amounts of hemoptysis may occur, and rupture of larger aneurysms on the cavity wall can cause massive hemoptysis. Fever is often associated with massive hemoptysis. A few days of low fever is caused by the absorption of blood in the small bronchi; high fever is a manifestation of the spread of the lesion.

3. Chest pain. Dull pain in an uncertain location is often caused by nerve firing and is not affected by breathing. Pin-like pain in a fixed area, which worsens with breathing and coughing, is caused by inflammation affecting the parietal pleura. If the diaphragmatic pleura is irritated, pain may radiate to the shoulders and upper abdomen.

3. Symptoms caused by respiratory dysfunction

Because the lungs have a large reserve capacity and high compensatory ability, mild tissue damage will not cause shortness of breath. When lung tissue damage is severe and widespread, or is complicated by lung atrophy, emphysema, and extensive pleural thickening, the compensatory function can no longer meet physiological needs, and the patient first feels shortness of breath after physical activity.