A case of miliary tuberculosis presenting as fever and jaundice with hepatic failure looking like the course of fulminant hepatitis

Abstract

A 79-year-old male was admitted to the Metropolitan Hiroo Hospital with chief complaints of icterus and fever. A few weeks prior to admission, he developed fever and swelling of right side of the neck and was seen at a local hospital where an anti-inflammatory agent was prescribed. The fever subsided in a few days, but recurred together with development of icterus a few weeks later, precipitating this hospitalization. After admission, hepatic failure progressed rapidly, indicating a fulminant hepatitis. Renal failure also developed and he died. Autopsy revealed diffuse caseous necrosis with demonstration of acid-fast bacilli in the liver, as did in the spleen, kidney and bone marrow. This case epitomizes a subset of miliary tuberculosis in which the hepatic failure predominates the clinical presentation while lacking the ante-mortem chest X-ray features suggestive of pulmonary tuberculosis and post-mortem macroscopic changes indicative of tuberculosis.