Patient factors associated with failure to diagnose tuberculosis in the emergency department.

Background: Emergency department (ED) presentation of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) can be highly atypical and an ED visit might be the only health care interaction for high-risk patients.

Objective: Our objective was to identify patient factors associated with discharge without a diagnosis of TB during an infectious ED visit.

Methods: The study population consisted of 150 patients from 2000 to 2009 with 190 infectious ED visits.