Diagnostic role of medical thoracoscopy in childhood pleural tuberculosis

Currently, the diagnostic role of medical thoracoscopy in childhood pleural tuberculosis remains uncertain. Therefore, this retrospective study was conducted to evaluate the diagnostic performance of histological examination of tissue samples obtained by medical thoracoscopy in childhood pleural tuberculosis. Hospitalized children who underwent medical thoracoscopy between May 2012 and March 2016 were included in the study. Tissue samples obtained by thoracoscopy were submitted for histological examination (hematoxylin and eosin staining). Descriptive statistical methods were used for data interpretation, and the data were expressed as the mean ± standard deviation. The childhood tuberculosis patients had the following characteristics: 11 had pleural tuberculosis and 9 had pleural tuberculosis + pulmonary tuberculosis, the average age was 13.0 ± 2.2 years old, 60% were male, 26.3% (5/19) of patients tested positive for acid-fast bacilli positive in smears, 21.1% (4/19) of patients were positive for TB-PCR, and 90% (18) of pleural tuberculosis patients were positive in the culture for Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The sensitivity of histological examinations of tissue samples obtained by thoracoscopy in the detection of pleural tuberculosis was 80% (16/20). Complications were reported in 15 cases, and all complications disappeared spontaneously without any specific treatment. Therefore, we concluded that medical thoracoscopy was a sensitive and safe tool for the detection of childhood pleural tuberculosis.