Tuberculosis (TB), an infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), can affect the lungs (pulmonary TB) as well as other sites (extrapulmonary TB). Nasopharyngeal tuberculosis (NPTB) is a rare type of extrapulmonary TB. Since NPTB has nonspecific clinical presentation with low index of suspicion, it is difficult for clinicians to make an early diagnosis and proper treatment. We recently encountered a 42-year-old woman with NPTB concomitant with middle ear TB, which strongly mimicked nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Since the diagnosis of NPTB was difficult to confirm based on endoscopic findings and imaging studies, this patient underwent nasopharyngeal biopsy, and finally, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) confirmed NPTB. This report describes our NPTB case as well as summarizes all cases of NPTB reported in South Korea. We highlight that active tissue biopsy with antibacterial smear and additional PCR or specific TB blood test should be considered for cases with high suspicion of NPTB.
Keywords: middle ear; nasopharyngeal carcinoma; nasopharynx; tuberculosis.