Aim: To characterize the clinical, radiological, endoscopic and pathological features of intestinal tuberculosis (ITB) and primary small intestinal lymphoma (PSIL).
Methods: This was a retrospective study from February 2005 to October 2012 of patients with a diagnosis of ITB (n = 41) or PSIL (n = 37). All patients with ITB or PSIL underwent computed tomography (CT) and pathological examination. Thirty-five patients with ITB and 32 patients with PSIL underwent endoscopy. These patients were followed for a further 18 mo to ascertain that the diagnosis had not changed. Clinical, endoscopic, CT and pathological features were compared between ITB and PSIL patients.
Results: Night sweating, fever, pulmonary TB and ascites were discovered significantly more often in ITB than in PSIL patients (P < 0.05), however, abdominal mass, hematochezia and intestinal perforation were found significantly more frequently in PSIL than in ITB patients (P < 0.05). Ring-like and rodent-like ulcers occurred significantly more often in ITB than in PSIL patients (P < 0.05), however, enterorrhagia and raised lesions were significantly more frequent in PSIL than in ITB patients (P < 0.05). The rate of granuloma was significantly higher in ITB than in PSIL patients (87.8% vs 13.5%, χ(2) = 43.050, P < 0.05), and the incidence of confluent granulomas with caseous necrosis was significantly higher in ITB than in PSIL patients (47.2% vs 0.0%, χ(2) = 4.034, P < 0.05). Multi-segmental lesions, mural stratification, mural gas sign, and intestinal stricture were more frequent in ITB than in PSIL patients (P < 0.05), however, a single-layer thickening of bowel wall, single segmental lesions, and intussusception were more common in PSIL than in ITB patients (P < 0.05). Necrotic lymph nodes, comb sign and inflammatory mass were more frequent in ITB than in PSIL patients (P < 0.05). The bowel wall enhancement in ITB patients was greater than that in PSIL patients (P < 0.05), while the thickening and lymph node enlargement in PSIL patients were higher than those in ITB patients (P < 0.05).
Conclusion: Combined evaluation of clinical, radiological, endoscopic and pathological features is the key to differentiation between ITB and PSIL.
Keywords: Clinical features; Computed tomography; Endoscopic features; Intestinal tuberculosis; Primary small intestinal lymphoma.