Objectives: We evaluated the clinical characteristics and risk factors for the paradoxical response (PR) in non-HIV-infected patients with peripheral lymph node tuberculosis (TB).
Methods: Medical records of non-HIV-infected patients aged > or =16 years with peripheral lymph node TB treated in a tertiary hospital between January 1997 and August 2007 were analysed. PR was defined as clinical or radiological worsening of pre-existing TB lesions, or development of new lesions in a patient who had received anti-TB therapy for at least 2 weeks.
Results: Three hundred patients with lymph node TB were included. Of these, 235 patients (78%) had confirmed TB; the remaining 65 (22%) had probable TB and were excluded from the final analysis. Among the 235 study patients, their mean age (+/-standard deviation) was 37.6 (+/-13.9) years and 175 (75%) were female. PR occurred in 54 (23%; 95% confidence interval 18-28%) patients, at a median onset time of 8 weeks (interquartile range, 4-14 weeks) after starting anti-TB medication. In multivariate analysis, younger age (OR 0.96), male gender (OR 2.60), and the presence of local tenderness at the time of diagnosis (OR 2.90) were independently associated with PR.
Conclusion: PR was relatively common, occurring in one-fifth of non-HIV-infected patients with peripheral lymph node TB, and was associated with younger age, male gender, and the presence of local tenderness.