Pulmonary Tuberculosis and Acute Respiratory Failure

Active pulmonary TB including miliary TB is a rare primary cause of acute respiratory failure and ARDS. Therefore, little has been known about the clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with ARDS caused by pulmonary TB. However, the incidence of TB in Korea remains in the relatively high range (90 cases per 100,000 persons in 2010), and high mortality rates (over 60%) have recently been reported in patients with ARF arising from TB. Poor prognostic factors have been evaluated are old age, delayed treatment, bad physiologic scores and combined sepsis. To improve high mortality in patients with acute respiratory failure caused by TB, further prospective studies for ventilator strategy and corticosteroid treatment are needed. (Korean J Med 2011;81:455-457)