In clinical practice, it is difficult to identify the exact route of transmission of TB from mother to baby, so as to establish the diagnosis as congenital or neonatal.85
Therefore, the term ‘perinatal TB’ is preferred to ‘congenital’ or ‘neonatal TB’. Differentiation of congenital TB from neonatal TB is of more epidemiological importance, as clinical management and prognosis does not differ significantly.16,86 Early treatment of maternal TB during pregnancy is the best way of preventing perinatal TB.5 There is lack of information to clearly understand congenital or neonatal TB. Only 300 cases of congenital TB have been reported in the medical literature up to the 1990s, and only a few cases were reported Rucaparib from South Asian countries.15,85–88 This is in contrast to the disproportionately high number of cases of TB among pregnant women in this region. Signs and symptoms of TB in the newborn are non-specific and may mimic bacterial or other congenital infections.86,88,89
Symptoms of perinatal TB may be present at birth, but more commonly begin by the second or third week after delivery.88,89 The most frequent signs and symptoms of congenital TB are hepatomegaly (76%), respiratory distress (72%), fever (48%) and lymphadenopathy (38%).15 History of maternal TB may be lacking, especially in cases of extrapulmonary TB. In more than 50% of congenital TB cases, maternal TB was diagnosed only after it was diagnosed in the neonates.80,85,88 Therefore, the current approach to investigate only those neonates born to the mothers with known TB would miss a large proportion of perinatal Venetoclax in vitro TB, who may otherwise be treated as neonatal sepsis.86,88,89
If index of suspicion for TB in the neonates is high, it would be appropriate to initiate maternal investigations for TB.85 In perinatal TB, tuberculin skin test is usually negative, and it usually takes 1–3 months to be positive. Most infants have abnormal chest radiographic findings, such as adenopathy, consolidation with cavitation, and diffuse parenchymal infiltrates.80,85,86,88 In most of the cases, the infants are put on empirical antibiotics, OSBPL9 and diagnosis of TB is delayed. If the infant does not improve with empirical antibiotics, further investigations for TB are carried out.88 Positive smear and/or culture results can often be obtained from gastric washings, endotracheal aspirate, ear discharge, spinal fluid, or bone marrow aspirates. Therefore, one should at least test gastric and endotracheal aspirates for acid-fast bacilli for infants born to mothers with TB.86,89,90 Placental studies for TB are essential in this situation.5 The baby should be observed for signs and symptoms of TB. If the baby is symptomatic, a chest X-ray is needed along with cerebrospinal fluid study. The second line of investigations would be ultrasonography of abdomen, and a liver biopsy.