Pulmonary tuberculosis presenting as suspected foreign body aspiration.

Tuberculosis is a disease of protean manifestations, and despite a falling incidence is still prevalent in our society. We present a case of a child whose history and preoperative chest radiograph suggested the presence of a foreign body, but subsequent examination of the material removed at endoscopy revealed a diagnosis of tuberculosis. We suggest that all friable material removed from the lower respiratory tract be submitted for microscopy, culture and histopathology with this diagnosis in mind.