Medical History
The medical history includes obtaining the symptoms of pulmonary TB: productive, prolonged cough of three or more weeks, chest pain, and hemoptysis. Systemic symptoms include low grade remittent fever, chills, night sweats, appetite loss, weight loss, easy fatiguability, and production of sputum that starts out mucoid but changes to purulent. Other parts of the medical history include prior TB exposure, infection or disease; past TB treatment; demographic risk factors for TB; and medical conditions that increase risk for TB disease such as HIV infection. Depending on the sort of patient population surveyed, as few as 20%, or as many as 75% of pulmonary tuberculosis cases may be without symptoms.
Tuberculosis should be suspected when a pneumonia-like illness has persisted longer than three weeks, or when a respiratory illness in an otherwise healthy individual does not respond to regular antibiotics.
Read more about this topic: Tuberculosis Diagnosis
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