Case of the Week
Section Editors: Matylda Machnowska1 and Anvita Pauranik2
1University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
2BC Children's Hospital, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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September 1, 2014
Laryngeal Tuberculosis
- Rare disease, with incidence estimated to be less than 1%
- Clinical Presentation: Progressive dysphonia, odynophagia, productive cough. May have previous or associated pulmonary tuberculosis (TB).
- Key Diagnostic Features:
- Imaging findings are nonspecific.
- Bilateral and diffuse laryngeal involvement without destruction of laryngeal architecture should raise the possibility of laryngeal TB.
- Diffuse thickening of vocal cords (symmetric or asymmetric), epiglottis, and arye-epiglittic folds is seen.
- Paralaryngeal fat reticulation and edema is common.
- Destruction or sclerosis of laryngeal cartilages is rare.
- Focal mass lesions have been described.
- DDx:
- Primary laryngeal carcinoma
- Sarcoidosis
- Fungal diseases
- Rx: Early diagnosis is important because of high infectivity rates. Response to anti-TB treatment is excellent.
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