Objective: Estimate the incidence and the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients diagnosed with tuberculosis in a county hospital located in the north western area of the Autonomous Region of Madrid, to determine if there has been an increase due to immigration.
Material and methods: Tuberculosis cases from January, 1996 to June, 2001 were analysed, researched through the Microbiology and Pathologic Anatomy Laboratory, fetching information such as demographics, clinical studies and disease diagnostics from the different medical histories.
Results: A total of 66 tuberculosis cases were registered, ten of them among immigrants, with an incidence of 13/100,000 inhabitants in 1996, decreasing to a 7/100,000 incidence in 2000. The age average is 34 with double the incidence in males (31/100,000) than females (17/100,000). The main risk factor is alcoholism with 11 cases (16.7%). The most commonly used diagnostic tests were the thorax radiography (61/66, 92%) with 57 (93.4%) positive identifications, culture of esputo (47/66, 71%) with 32 (68%) positive ids, and the Mantoux test (28, 42%) with 20 (71.4%) positive ids. The location of the illness is mainly pleuro-pulmonar in 50 cases (75%). There were almost no atypical mycobacterium found (5 cases). Overall, response to treatment with 3 drugs (isoniacide, rifampicine, piracinamide) was good in 88% of patients, with the average treatment lasting 6.8 months (ED: 2.8).
Conclusion: The incidence of tuberculosis in the north western area of Autonomous Community of Madrid is below that of the rest of our Community. It dipped in 1997 and has been stable around 9/100,000 inhabitants until 2000, even with the effect of immigration.