科研之友
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摘要
objective: to compare clinical, radiological and laboratory aspects of household contacts, aged 15 or younger, of patients presenting a positive culture for mycobacterium tuberculosis. methods: this was a cohort study comparing children and adolescents (%26lt; 15 years of age) who were household contacts of tb cases presenting positive sputum smear and positive culture results (exposed group, n = 100) or negative sputum smear and positive culture results (unexposed group, n = 55). all of the contacts were evaluated via the tb control program of a university hospital in the city of vit車ria, brazil, between july of 2003 and december of 2006. results: of the 155 minors evaluated, 87 (56.1%) were female and 68 (43.9%) were male. of those 155, 28 (18%) were aged 5 or younger, 62 (40%) were aged 5-9, and 65 (42%) were aged 10-15. symptoms of the disease were found in 17 (17%) of the 100 contacts in the exposed group and in 9 (16%) of the 55 in the unexposed group (p = 0.86). chest x-rays showed alterations in 20 (21%) and 2 (4%) of the contacts in the exposed and unexposed groups, respectively (rr = 6.9; p = 0.004). in the exposed and unexposed groups, respectively, 35 (38%) and 10 (18%) of the contacts presented positive results in the tuberculin skin test (rr = 2.8; p = 0.01). of the 100 contacts in the exposed group, 5 (5%) were diagnosed with tb, which was not diagnosed in any of those in the unexposed group (p = 0.08). conclusions: although no significant difference was found between the two groups regarding the incidence of tb, it is of note that there is a greater risk of becoming infected with m. tuberculosis if the bacterial load of the index case is high.
