[Acute tuberculous pancreatitis in a patient with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome].

The authors report a case of tuberculous pancreatitis in a 29 year old Zairan man. Serum antibodies against HIV were positive. T-lymphocyte analysis revealed 18/mm3 OKT4 with an OKT4/OKT8 ratio of 0.43. The initial examination suggested severe acute pancreatitis. Only the postmortem histopathological analysis revealed tuberculous pancreatitis, showing several miliary lesions with caseous necrosis and acid fast bacili (Ziehl stain). Subsequently, cultures (sputum, bronchoalveolar lavage, pleural effusion, ascitis) of bacili identified Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculous pancreatitis should be considered in subjects with acute pancreatitis according to the epidemiological context, once the most frequent causes of pancreatitis have been eliminated.