Background: Published information regarding the clinical characteristics, laboratory findings, and outcomes of\npatients with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) blood stream infection (BSI) is limited. We aimed in this study\nto evaluate the clinical characteristics, laboratory evaluation, and outcomes of patients with MTB BSI.\nMethods: All patients diagnosed with MTB BSI at Peking Union Medical College Hospital between January 2008\nand May 2014 were identified by examining the electronic database listing results of all blood cultures. Data on\ndemographics, clinical characteristics, laboratory manifestations, management, and outcomes were abstracted\nfrom medical records.\nResults: Six thousand nine hundred seventy-four patients had mycobacterial blood cultures during the study\nperiod. Of 48 patients (0.7%) with MTB BSI, 26 patients (54%) were considered to be immunocompromised (refers\nto a person who has a significantly impaired immune system). This was due to human immunodeficiency virus\n(HIV) infection (n = 2 of 48 tested), receiving steroids (n = 17, including 16 with rheumatic diseases and one with\nmyasthenia gravis), malignancy (n = 3), diabetes mellitus (n = 3), and renal transplantation (n = 1). The main clinical\nmanifestations were fever (100%, with a median of 40 �°C), weight loss (48%) and cough with sputum production\n(46%). Most patients had one or more organs involved (81%). The median time from onset of fever to diagnosis\nwas 8 weeks (IQR 5 ~ 14). Six patients died within 1 week after diagnosis. Of the 17 patients completing treatment,\n14 patients (82%) recovered without major complications and they had a shorter time interval between onsets of\nsymptoms to treatment compared to those died of TB.\nConclusions: In this group of patients with MTB BSI, fever and multiple organs involvement were common, the\noutcome was poor and timely diagnosis and treatment might favor outcome.
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