Testing For Tuberculosis

How do you know if you have tuberculosis? If you or your health care provider think you may have tuberculosis, a medical evaluation can be set up which can involve physical examinations, TB tests, and chest X-rays.

The Physical examination will check for symptoms of TB which may include:

• fever
• unexplained weight loss
• fatigue
• chest pain
• coughing for 3 weeks or more
• coughing up blood

This examination will also look into other illnesses or infections that a patient may have which could affect the TB infection, such as HIV

There are two types of TB tests which can determine if you have the infection.

1. The Tuberculin skin test involves injecting a small amount of fluid into the arm of a patient. After 2 to 3 days, the patient's arm will be looked at to see if a reaction occurred. If the injected area is raised or swollen, this patient is likely to have TB.

   

   here, the health care provider measure the size of swelling/raising caused by the skin test fluid (cdc)

2. With a TB blood test, a patients blood is drawn and taken to a laboratory and presented with TB bacteria to measure the reaction of the person's immune system. If there is no reaction, it is likely that this patient does not have active or latent TB.

   

   cdc

Chest X-rays are used to look for abnormalities such as lesions that may appear with TB within the lungs. By themselves, these X-rays are not enough to determine if a person has TB, but they can help to rule out the possibility of a pulmonary TB infection. 

While difficult to spot with the untrained eye, this image demonstrates the ability to determine if a person has pulmonary TB through the use of x-rays.

                                     

Acitve Tuberculosis Treatment Plans

medimoon.com

                   

Now that you are familiar with some basic information about Tuberculosis, we can focus on the commonly used treatment plan which combats this disease. The brief information provided about this treatment plans may seem intimidating or discouraging but do not worry! If you follow the plan that your physician makes just for you, you can avoid most problems and fully recover from TB! 

***It should be noted that this blog will focus on the typical treatment plan for active TB. If you have latent TB, are pregnant, or suffer from HIV and other medical conditions, your treatment may be very different than the following! Be sure to talk to your doctor about any pre-existing conditions that you may have!***

TREATMENT FACTS

• Typically, Tuberculosis is fought with a strict regiment of medicine
• This regiment will likely last from 6 to 9 months, at which point the disease should treated!
• The first line of defense of drugs act as the core of the treatment plan, and they include isoniazid (INH), rifampin (RIF), ethambutol (EMB), and pyrazinamide (PZA).
• There are 2 phases to the treatment plan: the Initial Phase (the first 2 months) and the Continuation Phase (the last 4 to 7 months, depending on other conditions)
• The treatment guidelines as established by the World Health Organization are as follows: 



dept.washington.edu

• All of these drugs can be taken by mouth in pill form
• Side effects of these drugs are not common but they can be damaging if they arise! Talk to your doctor immediately if you experience any of these side effects: vomiting, lack of hunger, yellowing skin, dark urine, or a fever lasting three days or more. 
• After a few weeks of this treatment plan you may not be contagious anymore
• You MUST continue to take all your prescribed medication at the correct times until you have finished the prescription! This is the most important thing you can do to increase your chances of a full recovery!

Like always, do not be afraid to ask your doctor any questions you may have about your treatment plan! It is very important that you know what pills to take, when to take them, and tips to remember to take them, and your physician will be happy to assist you with this!
For more information, you can check out this CDC pamphlet, which discusses how to stay on track with your TB medicine.