Korean Journal of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy  2008;37(5):335-338

A Case of Esophageal Tuberculosis as the Cause of a Fever of an Unknown Origin.

Jae Myung CHA 1 ; Joung Il LEE ; Jae Won CHOE ; Kwang Ro JOO ; Sung Won JUNG ; Hyun Phil SHIN ; Woo Young HEW

Affiliations

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Keywords

Tuberculosis; Fever of unknown origin; Esophagus

Country

Republic of Korea

Language

Korean

Abstract

Fever of an unknown origin (FUO) means a fever that does not resolve spontaneously, and the cause remains elusive after an extensive diagnostic workup. The most common cause of FUO is infectious disease, and the most common infectious cause documented in Korea is tuberculosis, and particularly extrapulmonary or miliary tuberculosis. Among the extrapulmonary tuberculosis, esophageal tuberculosis is a very rare form of adult tuberculosis, and even in Korea with its high prevalence of tuberculosis. Esophageal tuberculosis can present as systemic symptoms such as weight loss, fever, chills and general weakness, or as local symptoms such as chest pain, dysphagia, cough and hematemesis. However, it can present as a prolonged fever of an unknown origin without any other symptoms. In this report, we describe a patient with esophageal tuberculosis, and the patient presented with a fever of unknown origin for 1 month. The patient was diagnosed by esophagogastroduodenoscopy with biopsy and he responded well to antituberculosis therapy.