Sites of TB Disease
TB disease can occur in different places in the body. Pulmonary TB is TB that occurs in the lungs. About 85% of TB cases are pulmonary. Most patients with pulmonary TB have a cough and an abnormal chest x-ray, and they should be considered infectious until they meet certain criteria.
Extrapulmonary TB occurs in places other than the lungs, such as the larynx, the lymph nodes, the pleura (the membrane surrounding each lung), the brain, the kidneys, or the bones and joints. Extrapulmonary TB occurs more often in people who are infected with HIV than in people who are not infected with HIV. In HIV-infected people, extrapulmonary TB is often accompanied by pulmonary TB. Most types of extrapulmonary TB are not considered infectious.
Miliary TB occurs when tubercle bacilli enter the bloodstream and are carried to all parts of the body, where they grow and cause disease in multiple sites. This condition, which is rare but serious, is called miliary TB because the chest x-ray has the appearance of millet seeds scattered throughout the lung.
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