Pediatric Abdominal Tuberculosis With Calcified Intra-abdominal Lymph Nodes Identified by Point-of-Care Ultrasound

Background Tuberculosis of the abdomen is one of the most common extrapulmonary manifestations of tuberculosis. Even in areas where tuberculosis is endemic, intra-abdominal tuberculous can pose a diagnostic and management challenge because of the lack of presence of overt clinical signs and availability of expertise for point of care diagnostics. Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) of the abdomen performed by emergency physicians is increasingly being used for a variety of clinical presentations to facilitate accurate diagnoses in the emergency department. Case report We describe the case of a patient presenting to the pediatric emergency department with acute abdominal pain, in whom POCUS helped expedite the diagnosis of abdominal tuberculosis. Conclusions In the right clinical setting, the concurrent presence of intra-abdominal lymphadenopathy, ascites, mesenteric thickening, ileocecal thickening, and splenic microabscesses on ultrasound imaging should lead to consideration of the diagnosis of intra-abdominal tuberculosis. Although typically diagnosed on computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging, in our case, POCUS helped facilitate the bedside diagnosis of abdominal tuberculosis in the emergency department.