Miliary tuberculosis is a form of tuberculosis that is characterized by a wide dissemination into the human body and by the tiny size of the lesions (1–5 mm). Its name comes from a distinctive pattern seen on a chest radiograph of many tiny spots distributed throughout the lung fields with the appearance similar to millet seeds—thus the term "miliary" tuberculosis. Miliary TB may infect any number of organs, including the lungs, liver, and spleen. Miliary tuberculosis is present in about 2% of all reported cases of tuberculosis and accounts for up to 20% of all extra-pulmonary tuberculosis cases.

Patients with miliary tuberculosis often experience non-specific signs, such as coughing and enlarged lymph nodes. Miliary tuberculosis can also present with enlarged liver (40% of cases), enlarged spleen (15%), inflammation of the pancreas (<5%), and multiple organ dysfunction with adrenal insufficiency (adrenal glands do not produce enough steroid hormones to regulate organ function). Miliary tuberculosis may also present with unilateral or bilateral pneumothorax rarely. Stool may also be diarrheal in nature and appearance.

Other symptoms include fever, hypercalcemia, chorodial tubercles and cutaneous lesions.

Firstly, many patients can experience a fever lasting several weeks with daily spikes in morning temperatures.

Secondly, hypercalcemia prevails in 16 to 51% of tuberculosis cases. It is thought that hypercalcemia occurs as a response to increased macrophage activity in the body. Such that, 1,25 dihydroxycholecalciferol (also referred to as calcitriol) improves the ability of macrophages to kill bacteria; however, higher levels of calcitriol lead to higher calcium levels, and thus hypercalcemia in some cases. Thus, hypercalcemia proves to be an important symptom of miliary tuberculosis.

Thirdly, chorodial tubercules, pale lesions on the optic nerve, typically indicate miliary tuberculosis in children. These lesions may occur in one eye or both; the number of lesions varies between patients. Chorodial tubercules may serve as important symptoms of miliary tuberculosis, since their presence can often confirm suspected diagnosis.

Lastly, between 10 and 30% of adults, and 20–40% of children with miliary tuberculosis have tuberculosis meningitis. This relationship results from myobacteria from miliary tuberculosis spreading to the brain and the subarachnoid space; as a result, leading to tuberculosis meningitis.

The risk factors for contracting miliary tuberculosis are being in direct contact with a person who has it, living in unsanitary conditions, and having an unhealthy diet. In the U.S., risk factors for contracting the disease include homelessness and HIV/AIDS.

Tuberculosis may infect any part of the body, but most commonly occurs in the lungs (known as pulmonary tuberculosis). Extrapulmonary TB occurs when tuberculosis develops outside of the lungs, although extrapulmonary TB may coexist with pulmonary TB.

General signs and symptoms include fever, chills, night sweats, loss of appetite, weight loss, and fatigue. Significant nail clubbing may also occur.

The infection usually has its origin in the vagina and ascends to the Fallopian tube from there. Because the infection can spread via the lymph vessels, infection in one Fallopian tube usually leads to infection of the other.

If a tuberculosis infection does become active, it most commonly involves the lungs (in about 90% of cases). Symptoms may include chest pain and a prolonged cough producing sputum. About 25% of people may not have any symptoms (i.e. they remain "asymptomatic"). Occasionally, people may cough up blood in small amounts, and in very rare cases, the infection may erode into the pulmonary artery or a Rasmussen's aneurysm, resulting in massive bleeding. Tuberculosis may become a chronic illness and cause extensive scarring in the upper lobes of the lungs. The upper lung lobes are more frequently affected by tuberculosis than the lower ones. The reason for this difference is not clear. It may be due to either better air flow, or poor lymph drainage within the upper lungs.

The symptoms usually appear after a menstrual period. The most common are:

- Abnormal smell and colour of vaginal discharge

- Pain during ovulation

- Pain during sexual intercourse

- Pain coming and going during periods

- Abdominal pain

- Lower back pain

- Fever

- Nausea

- Vomiting

- Bloating

Chronic Endometritis is characterized by the presence of plasma cells in the stroma. Lymphocytes, eosinophils, and even lymphoid follicles may be seen, but in the absence of plasma cells, are not enough to warrant a histologic diagnosis. It may be seen in up to 10% of all endometrial biopsies performed for irregular bleeding. The most common organisms are Chlamydia trachomatis (chlamydia), Neisseria gonorrhoeae (gonorrhea), Streptococcus agalactiae (Group B Streptococcus), Mycoplasma hominis, tuberculosis, and various viruses. Most of these agents are capable of causing chronic pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). Patients suffering from chronic endometritis may have an underlying cancer of the cervix or endometrium (although infectious cause is more common). Antibiotic therapy is curative in most cases (depending on underlying cause), with fairly rapid alleviation of symptoms after only 2 to 3 days.

Chronic granulomatous endometritis is usually caused by tuberculous. The granulomas are small, sparse, and without caseation. The granulomas take up to 2 weeks to develop and since the endometrium is shed every 4 weeks, the granulomas are poorly formed.

In human medicine, pyometra (also a veterinary condition of significance) is regarded as a form of chronic endometritis seen in elderly women causing stenosis of the cervical os and accumulation of discharges and infection. Symptom in chronic endometritis is blood stained discharge but in pyometra the patient complaints of lower abdominal pain.

Acute Endometritis is characterized by infection. The organisms most often isolated are believed to be because of compromised abortions, delivery, medical instrumentation, and retention of placental fragments. There is not enough evidence for the use of prophylactic antibiotics to prevent endometritis after manual removal of placental in vaginal birth. Histologically, neutrophilic infiltration of the endometrial tissue is present during acute endometritis. The clinical presentation is typically high fever and purulent vaginal discharge. Menstruation after acute endometritis is excessive and in uncomplicated cases can resolve after 2 weeks of clindamycin and gentamicin IV antibiotic treatment.

In certain populations, it has been associated with "Mycoplasma genitalium" and pelvic inflammatory disease.

Oophoritis is an inflammation of the ovaries.

It is often seen in combination with salpingitis (inflammation of the fallopian tubes). It may develop in response to infection.

Primary inoculation tuberculosis (also known as "Cutaneous primary complex," "Primary tuberculous complex," and "Tuberculous chancre") is a skin condition that develops at the site of inoculation of tubercle bacilli into a tuberculosis-free individual.

Symptoms are similar to tuberculosis (TB), and include fever, fatigue, and weight loss. Pulmonary involvement is similar to TB, while diarrhea and abdominal pain are associated with gastrointestinal involvement.

Tuberculous lymphadenitis (or tuberculous adenitis) is a chronic specific granulomatous inflammation of the lymph node with caseation necrosis, caused by infection with "Mycobacterium tuberculosis" or "Mycobacterium bovis".

The characteristic morphological element is the tuberculous granuloma (caseating tubercule). This consists of giant multinucleated cells and (Langhans cells), surrounded by epithelioid cells aggregates, T cell lymphocytes and fibroblasts. Granulomatous tubercules eventually develop central caseous necrosis and tend to become confluent, replacing the lymphoid tissue.

Stages of tubercular lymphadenitis:

1. Lymphadenitis

2. Periadenitis

3. Cold abscess

4. 'Collar stud' abscess

5. Sinus

Tuberculous lymphadenitis is popularly known as collar stud abscess, due to its proximity to the collar bone and superficial resemblance to a collar stud, although this is just one of the five stages of the disease. The characteristic morphological element is the tuberculous granuloma (caseating tubercule): giant multinucleated cells (Langhans cells), surrounded by epithelioid cells aggregates, T cell lymphocytes and few fibroblasts. Granulomatous tubercules evolve to central caseous necrosis and tend to become confluent, replacing the lymphoid tissue.

Tuberculous gumma (also known as a "metastatic tuberculous abscess" and "metastatic tuberculous ulcer") is a cutaneous condition characterized histologically by massive necrosis. Restated, this is a skin condition that results from hematogenous dissemination of mycobacteria from a primary focus, resulting in firm, nontender erythematous nodules that soften, ulcerate, and form sinuses.

The diagnosis of the condition is made on the basis of histological and bacteriological studies. Tuberculosis dactylitis may be confused with conditions like osteomyelitis, gout, sarcoidosis and tumors.

Tuberculous dactylitis is a skeletal manifestation of tuberculosis, one of the commonest bacterial osteitis. It affects children more often than adults. The first radiological description of the condition is credited to Feilchenfeld in 1896; however, the first histological description was given by Rankin in 1886. Multiple bones are involved in children and usually only a single bone is involved in adults suffering from tuberculous dactylitis. Tuberculous dactylitis affects the short tubular bones of the hands and feet in children. It often follows a mild course without fever and acute inflammatory signs as opposed to acute osteomyelitis. There may be a gap of a few months to 2 to 3 years from the time of initial infection to the point of diagnosis.

Spina ventosa is the term given for tuberculous dactylitis. Nearly 85% of the patients of spina ventosa are below 6 years of age.The bones of hands are more commonly involved than those of the feet. Proximal phalanx of the index and middle fingers are the commonest sites of involvement.Up to nearly 7% of children with pulmonary tuberculosis may develop this condition. Spread to the skeletal system is believed to occur via blood and lymphatics.

"Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare" infection (MAI) is an atypical mycobacterial infection, i.e. one with nontuberculous mycobacteria or NTM, caused by "Mycobacterium avium" complex ("MAC"), which is made of three mycobacteria species, "M. avium", "M. intracellulare", and "M. chimaera". This infection causes respiratory illness in birds, pigs, and humans, especially in immunocompromised people. In the later stages of AIDS it can be very severe. It usually first presents as a persistent cough. It is typically treated with a series of three antibiotics for a period of at least six months.

"M. avium", "M. intracellulare", and "M. chimaera" are each saprotrophic organisms present in soil and water; entry into hosts is usually via the gastrointestinal tract, but also can be via the lungs.

MAC infections can cause fevers, diarrhea, malabsorption, as well as loss of appetite and weight loss, and can disseminate to the bone marrow. Therapy for MAI is typically resistant to standard mycobacterial therapies.

Scrofuloderma (also known as "Tuberculosis cutis colliquativa") is a skin condition caused by tuberculous involvement of the skin by direct extension, usually from underlying tuberculous lymphadenitis.

Tuberculous cellulitis is a skin condition resulting from infection with mycobacterium, and presenting as cellulitis.

The initial lesion is a small subcutaneous swelling following minor trauma. Later, sinuses that discharge purulent and seropurulent exudates containing grains which are fungal colonies are formed. Destruction of deeper tissues, and deformity and loss of function in the affected limbs may occur in later stages.

Fever and headache are the cardinal features, confusion is a late feature and coma bears a poor prognosis. Meningism is absent in a fifth of patients with TB meningitis. Patients may also have focal neurological deficits.

Eumycetoma is a chronic granulomatous fungal disease of humans, affecting mainly the limbs, and sometimes the abdominal and chest walls or the head. "Mycetoma pedis" (mycetoma of the foot), the most common form of mycetoma, is known widely as the Madura foot. The infection is endemic in Africa, India and Central and South America.

Pott disease or Pott's disease is a form of tuberculosis that occurs outside the lungs whereby disease is seen in the vertebrae. Tuberculosis can affect several tissues outside the lungs including the spine, a kind of tuberculous arthritis of the intervertebral joints. The disease is named after Percivall Pott (1714–1788), a British surgeon. The lower thoracic and upper lumbar vertebrae are the areas of the spine most often affected. The formal name for the disease is tuberculous spondylitis and it is most commonly localized in the thoracic portion of the spine.

Pott’s disease results from haematogenous spread of tuberculosis from other sites, often the lungs. The infection then spreads from two adjacent vertebrae into the adjoining intervertebral disc space. If only one vertebra is affected, the disc is normal, but if two are involved, the disc, which is avascular, cannot receive nutrients and collapses. In a process called caseous necrosis the disc tissue dies leading to vertebral narrowing and eventually to vertebral collapse and spinal damage. A dry soft tissue mass often forms and superinfection is rare.

Tuberculous meningitis is also known as TB meningitis or tubercular meningitis. Tuberculous meningitis is "Mycobacterium tuberculosis" infection of the meninges—the system of membranes which envelop the central nervous system.

"Lymph adenitis" or "lymph node adenitis" is caused by infection in lymph nodes. The infected lymph nodes typically become enlarged, warm and tender. A swelling of lymph nodes due to growth of lymph cells is called lymphadenopathy. Types include:

- Neck

- Cervical adenitis is an inflammation of a lymph node in the neck.

- Tuberculous adenitis (scrofula) is a tuberculous infection of the skin of the neck caused by "Mycobacterium tuberculosis". Non-tuberculous adenitis can also be caused by "Mycobacterium scrofulaceum" or "Mycobacterium avium".

- Abdomen

- Mesenteric adenitis is an inflammation of the mesenteric lymph nodes in the abdomen. It can be caused by the bacterium "Yersinia enterocolitica". If it occurs in the right lower quadrant, it can be mistaken for acute appendicitis, often preceded by a sore throat.