Acute respiratory distress syndrome complicating community-acquired pneumonia secondary to mycobacterium tuberculosis in a tertiary care center in Saudi Arabia

OBJECTIVES: To discuss our center’s experience with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) secondary to pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) in a major tertiary referral hospital in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. METHODS: A retrospective review of medical records of all patients with community-acquired pneumonia secondary to mycobacterium TB infection who were admitted for critical care in a single center of King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from 2004 to 2013. RESULTS: In our review of 350 patients with community-acquired pneumonia admitted to Intensive Care Unit, 11 cases of TB complicated with ARDS were identified. The mean age of patients was 51.9 years. The median time from hospital admission to pulmonary TB diagnosis and start of therapy was 5 days, while the median time from onset of symptoms to initiation of treatment was 18 days. The mortality rate was 64%, and the median length of hospital stay before death was 21.4 days. Delayed treatment, as well as high acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II and CURB-65 scores at presentation, were independent risk factors for death. CONCLUSION: Patients with pulmonary TB infrequently present to intensive care with acute symptoms that meet all criteria for ARDS. Such a presentation of TB carries a high mortality risk.