We evaluated the clinical characteristics and risk factors for the paradoxical response (PR) in non-HIV-infected patients with peripheral lymph node tuberculosis (TB).

Medical records of non-HIV-infected patients aged ≥16 years with peripheral lymph node TB treated in a tertiary hospital between January 1997 and August 2007 were analysed. PR was defined as clinical or radiological worsening of pre-existing TB lesions, or development of new lesions in a patient who had received anti-TB therapy for at least 2 weeks.

Three hundred patients with lymph node TB were included. Of these, 235 patients (78%) had confirmed TB; the remaining 65 (22%) had probable TB and were excluded from the final analysis. Among the 235 study patients, their mean age (±standard deviation) was 37.6 (±13.9) years and 175 (75%) were female. PR occurred in 54 (23%; 95% confidence interval 18–28%) patients, at a median onset time of 8 weeks (interquartile range, 4–14 weeks) after starting anti-TB medication. In multivariate analysis, younger age (OR 0.96), male gender (OR 2.60), and the presence of local tenderness at the time of diagnosis (OR 2.90) were independently associated with PR.

PR was relatively common, occurring in one-fifth of non-HIV-infected patients with peripheral lymph node TB, and was associated with younger age, male gender, and the presence of local tenderness.