Tuberculosis has no symptoms

I believe that everyone must be very scared when they hear about the disease called tuberculosis. So far, there have been many cases of death due to tuberculosis. Even today when modern medical technology is so advanced, it is still difficult to treat tuberculosis. What is most frightening is that tuberculosis is highly contagious and it is easy to be infected with tuberculosis if you are not careful. But some people find out that they have tuberculosis without any obvious symptoms. Is this normal?

Tuberculosis is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis that can invade many organs, with pulmonary tuberculosis infection being the most common. People who excrete bacteria are an important source of infection. A person does not necessarily develop tuberculosis after being infected with tuberculosis bacteria. Clinical illness may only occur when the body's resistance is reduced or cell-mediated allergic reactions increase. If diagnosed promptly and treated appropriately, most patients can recover clinically.

1. In the early stages of pulmonary tuberculosis, there may be no symptoms when the lesions are mild. The only symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis are fatigue, listlessness, weight loss and loss of appetite. Some patients experience persistent or recurring "colds". Respiratory symptoms include mild cough, which is mostly dry cough or accompanied by a small amount of sputum. Blood in the sputum is often an important symptom that prompts patients to seek medical treatment. Physical examination usually shows no positive findings. When the lesion is in the upper part of the lung, fine moist rales can be heard in the interscapular area when coughing lightly, indicating that the lesion may be active.

2. If the tuberculosis lesions are extensive during the active stage, the symptoms of tuberculosis may include fever, night sweats and weight loss. The body temperature usually rises in the afternoon or evening and subsides the next morning. Some patients have varying degrees of hemoptysis. Blood in sputum is often due to inflammatory lesions and caused by increased capillary permeability. Moderate hemoptysis may occur due to damage to small blood vessels, while massive hemoptysis may occur due to rupture of aneurysm in the cavitary wall.

3. Chronic pulmonary tuberculosis can cause lobar consolidation and shrinkage due to extensive lesions and widespread proliferation of fibrous tissue. Physical examination of pulmonary tuberculosis shows chest collapse on the affected side, weakened tactile and vocal fremitus, dullness on percussion, decreased breath sounds on auscultation or presence of bronchial breath sounds, and moist rales.

4. Other tuberculosis patients may experience dull chest pain, and those with extensive lung lesions may experience difficulty breathing. The onset of acute miliary tuberculosis can be relatively sudden, with chills and irregular fever.

5. In addition to the common characteristics mentioned above, four points should be noted in the clinical manifestations of pulmonary tuberculosis in the elderly.

(1) The first symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis : It is generally believed that pulmonary tuberculosis in the elderly has an insidious onset, a slow course, and often atypical symptoms. According to statistics, 81.8% of elderly patients with tuberculosis have one of the five symptoms, including cough, hemoptysis, fever, dyspnea and loss of appetite, as the first symptom, among which cough is the first, accounting for 39.1%.

(2) Common symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis: Based on an analysis of a group of 797 cases of pulmonary tuberculosis in the elderly aged 60 years and above in China. The common symptoms are in the following order: cough, hemoptysis, chest pain, shortness of breath and fever, that is, respiratory symptoms are more obvious.

(3) A high proportion of patients with non-tuberculosis diseases: Elderly patients with pulmonary tuberculosis are often complicated by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, etc. The clinical manifestations of these diseases often mask the clinical symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis, which is worthy of attention. In patients with pulmonary tuberculosis and uncontrolled diabetes, tuberculosis lesions progress rapidly and are prone to caseous necrosis and bronchial spread.

(4) The incidence of hematogenous disseminated pulmonary tuberculosis in the elderly is on the rise: The disease is often insidious in the elderly, and various non-specific symptoms and signs occur due to the involvement of various systems, resulting in a high misdiagnosis rate. Typical changes are found in chest X-rays in 1/3 to 2/3 of cases, and the tuberculin test may be negative.