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Learning from errors
CASE REPORT
Disseminated tuberculosis masquerading as a neuroendocrine tumour
  1. Ruslan Garcia,
  2. Samuel Yamshon
  1. Department of Medicine, NewYork Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Ruslan Garcia, rug9029{at}nyp.org

Summary

We describe the case of a 61-year-old man from the Dominican Republic admitted with diarrhoea, fevers and weight loss who was found to have lab studies and imaging (including radiolabeled somatostatin positron emission tomography/CT scan) initially consistent with a metastatic neuroendocrine tumour. However, after weeks of workup and multiple inconclusive biopsies, he was diagnosed with disseminated extrapulmonary tuberculosis. Here we examine the data for neuroendocrine tumour and tuberculosis labs and imaging to delineate where these studies overlap. We also analyse the biases and pitfalls in this case that led to a protracted diagnosis.

  • endocrine cancer
  • tropical medicine (infectious disease)

https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2018-225591

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors RG and SY had the privilege of treating this patient and were involved in writing this manuscript.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent Not required.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.