TY - JOUR T1 - Demographic and microbial characteristics of childhood tuberculosis in Istanbul: Evaluation of 1541 cases JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 42 IS - Suppl 57 SP - P2851 AU - Erkan Cakir AU - Ela Erdem AU - Nagihan Ozlu AU - Engin Seber AU - Serap Gencer AU - Zeki Kilicaslan Y1 - 2013/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/42/Suppl_57/P2851.abstract N2 - Introduction: Although tuberculosis (TB) is frequently seen in Turkey, there are limited and generally one center studies on childhood TB. Aim: To describe clinical and laboratory findings of children with TB in Istanbul, Turkey, including the drug resistances. Methods: The data of children who were diagnosed with TB between 2006 and 2010 were reviewed. Results: The study included 1541 cases. Forty-four percent of the patients were male with a mean age of 8.86±4.19. Fifty-five percent of the patients had pulmonary TB, 39% had extrapulmonary TB and 6% had both pulmonary and extrapulmonary TB. The most common extrapulmonary involvement sites were the pleura, lymph nodes and central nervous system. Forty-one percent of the patients were evaluated microbiologically and 35% of them were positive. For the total study group, 14% of them were positive. A drug susceptibility test was performed on 108 patients. Drug resistance to at least one drug was detected in 16%, to isoniazid in 15%, streptomycin in 12%, rifampicin in 9%, ethambutol in 7% and multidrug resistance in 8% of patients. All of the patients tolerated the treatment well and there was no case with treatment failure. Conclusion: This is the first multicenter study about childhood TB in Turkey both for demographic features and for drug resistance. In Turkey, the rate of microbiological diagnosis is low, similar to rates worldwide. More microbiological studies and drug resistance tests should be done and annual changes should be followed with multicenter studies. ER -