Clinical characteristics of elderly pulmonary tuberculosis in an acute-care general hospital in Tokyo, Japan: A 12-year retrospective study

Objective A significant feature of tuberculosis (TB) in Japan is the fact that a high proportion of cases belong to the elderly population. Furthermore, previous reports have pointed out the delayed diagnosis of pulmonary TB in acute-care settings. We aimed to examine the clinical characteristics of pulmonary TB patients in an acute-care general hospital, particularly focusing on the elderly population. Methods We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of patients with pulmonary TB who presented at our institution between May 2005 and December 2016. We described the overall clinical characteristics of these patients and compared them according to age. Results Overall, 289 patients were eligible for the analysis, with a median age of 58 [42-73] years, and 29.4% being older than 70 years. Among the elderly patients, 42.4% were characterized by atypical presentation. Conclusion Our findings suggest that the elderly population tends to present as atypical cases lacking respiratory complaints, thereby being at a risk of misdiagnosis.