While tuberculosis (TB) can affect any organ of the body, it also has the potential to impact the heart muscle, which is usually considered safe. Doctors at Care Hospital on Tuesday said TB infection of the heart muscle, which is known as Myocardial Tuberculosis, was tough to diagnose.
Different symptoms
A study conducted on 13 Myocardial TB patients by hospital doctors, which was published in the recent edition of the Journal of American College of Cardiology , says “common symptoms like fever or weight loss that is present in normal TB patients was absent in this group”.
Could be fatal
Myocardial TB causes fast heart beats and could even lead to death, doctors said.
“TB affecting the heart is new knowledge. If left untreated, such patients get hospitalised repeatedly and undergo expensive medical procedures or may get into worsening heart failure. Medical textbooks report that TB of the heart is an extremely rare disease,” said lead author of the study and chief of electrophysiology C. Narasimhan.
Since reporting to the journal, the doctors have diagnosed five more such cases. “The aim of the study is to spread awareness on prevalence of myocardial TB,” Dr. Narasimhan added.
