Abstract

Endobronchial tuberculosis is a tuberculous infection of the tracheobronchial tree with microbiological and histopathological evidence, with or without parenchymal involvement, it is an infrequent localization of tuberculosis posing the problem of differential diagnosis.We reported 7 cases of endobronchial tuberculosis collected in the department during a period from January 2020 to december 2022.The aim of our work was to describe the clinical presentation and the means of diagnosis of this form of tuberculosis. The average age was 34 years, with a predominance of female gender (71%).A history of pulmonary tuberculosis was not found in our patients and a recent tuberculosis contagion was reported by one patient.The clinical symptoms were dominated by dyspnea in 6 cases, dry cough in 5 cases, hemoptysis and bronchial syndrome in one case each. Chest CT scan revealed an alveolar condensation in 3 cases associated with mediastinal lymphadenopathies in 2 cases, a lung atelectasis and a pleural effusion in 3 cases each.Bronchoscopy showed in addition to the diffuse inflammation found in all our patients,a whitish granulations in 5 cases,infiltrative stenosis in 3 cases and an endobronchial tumor in one case. The Xpert MTB/RIF test in the bronchial aspiration fluid was positive in 4 cases, by MTB PCR test and BK culture in 1 case each,a caseo-follicular tuberculosis was found in bronchial biopsy in 4 cases and pleural biopsy in one case.All patients were put under anti-bacillary treatment associated with oral corticosteroid therapy in 3 cases.The evolution was satisfactory in all patients.The endobronchial tuberculosis is a special form of pulmonary tuberculosis which can simulate a tumoral pathology,making its diagnosis difficult