Relationship between cervical lymphatic tuberculosis and allergic diseases and recurrent respiratory tract infections

  In the clinical clinic of the Department of Immunopathology, most patients with allergic diseases and recurrent respiratory infections due to decreased immune function have combined cervical lymphatic tuberculosis, and a few have pulmonary, pulmonary, and mesenteric lymphatic tuberculosis. Since 1981, the Department of Immunopathology of our hospital has been treating patients with allergic diseases and recurrent respiratory tract infections, and found that some of them are not as effective as others after treatment with desensitization and improvement of immune function. The efficacy is very satisfactory after the addition of anti-tuberculosis treatment, and the cure is achieved.  Allergic diseases in combination with cervical lymphatic tuberculosis include bronchial asthma, allergic rash, atopic dermatitis, eczema, allergic purpura, allergic rhinitis, angioedema, allergic keratitis, rheumatoid, psoriasis, etc. in the order of commonness. Recurrent respiratory tract infections in combination with cervical lymphatic tuberculosis include, in descending order of commonness, easy flu, chronic bronchitis, chronic tonsillitis, chronic pharyngitis, recurrent oral ulcers, chronic rhinitis, acne, allergic pneumonia, and respiratory pseudomonas aeruginosa infection.  Cervical lymphatic tuberculosis is a frequent and common disease, but currently it is not properly recognized and is often misdiagnosed. In the past two years, our outpatient clinic has seen 804 patients under 30 years of age, of which 463 cases were combined with cervical lymphatic tuberculosis, accounting for 58% of the outpatient visits. Examination of erythrocyte immune function is low: erythrocyte C3b receptor wreath rate 9.14 + 3.8, erythrocyte C3b receptor wreath promotion rate 111.86 + 23.67, lower than normal; erythrocyte immune complex wreath rate 8.92 + 3.54, erythrocyte C3b receptor wreath inhibition rate 47.5 + 11.54 higher than normal; the difference is highly significant. Babies born in our hospitals are vaccinated with BCG to prevent tuberculosis infection. Immunocompetent adults have weakly positive tuberculin tests because they have all been exposed to TB bacteria, and poorly immunocompetent individuals have negative tuberculin tests. In normal people, the cervical lymph nodes cannot be palpated. However, if the body’s immune function is poor and fails to fight off and destroy the tuberculosis bacilli, the bacilli may multiply in the lymph nodes and form nodes and nuclei of varying sizes in bunches on both sides of the neck, like Buddhist pearls, known as cervical lymphatic tuberculosis. Cervical lymphatic tuberculosis also has tuberculosis symptoms such as night sweats, cough, loss of appetite, lethargy and fatigue, irritability and anemia, and low fever in the evening. Immune function further decreases and becomes susceptible to colds, which is a vicious circle with recurrent respiratory infections and allergic diseases.  One of the reasons for misdiagnosis of this disease is that the symptoms are atypical, chest X-ray is negative, active tuberculosis cannot be completely ruled out in the calcified spots, abdominal pain, diarrhea and constipation alternating symptoms of extra-pulmonary tuberculosis such as mesenteric lymphatic tuberculosis are ignored, the nodulin test is negative when the immune function is low, and the symptoms do not change or are somewhat aggravated for a period of time after anti-tuberculosis drug treatment, similar to Herxheimer’ s reaction; secondly, the doctor did not take a detailed medical history, did not examine the cervical lymph nodes carefully, and did not recognize their importance. In our department, we have diagnosed patients with combined cervical lymphatic tuberculosis who were denied tuberculosis infection by other hospitals and automatically gave up anti-tuberculosis treatment, and later their condition worsened and developed into hilar lymphatic tuberculosis and pulmonary tuberculosis. We hope to draw the attention of our colleagues.