Intestinal tuberculosis may be misdiagnosed as intestinal tumor (hereinafter referred to as colon cancer). There are similarities in clinical presentation between the two, but the diagnosis can be clarified by colonoscopy and pathological biopsy.
Intestinal tuberculosis mostly involves the ileocecal region, and may present with abdominal pain in the right lower abdomen or around the umbilicus, change in bowel habit such as diarrhea or constipation, and may have a mass in the right lower abdomen, and the above local manifestations are similar to those of colon cancer. Intestinal tuberculosis has symptoms of tuberculosis toxemia such as low-grade fever, night sweating (abnormal sweating after going to sleep, and sweating stops after waking up), lethargy, anemia, etc., while colon cancer can also have low-grade fever and anemia.
The difference between the two is that intestinal tuberculosis mostly occurs in middle-aged and young people, while colon cancer mostly occurs in middle-aged and old people. Patients with intestinal tuberculosis have a strong positive tuberculin test or a positive gamma-interferon release test, while intestinal tumors are usually negative.
Colonoscopy + biopsy is an important method of differential diagnosis, intestinal tuberculosis endoscopically visible mucosal congestion and edema, ulceration, inflammatory polyps, biopsy can be found in caseous granuloma. And intestinal tumors through colonoscopy can directly observe the scope of tumor infiltration, biopsy can confirm the diagnosis of pathological types.