Background: Abdominal tuberculosis presentswith vague symptoms, marked by a delay in establishing diagnosis. Present study was conducted to study demographic and clinical profile of abdominal tuberculosis. Methods: It was a prospective observational study done for a period of 4 years from 2012 to 2016. All the patients underwent thorough assessment in form of detailed history, general physical examination, systemic examination and relevant investigations to establish diagnosis of abdominal tuberculosis. Results: A total of 46 cases abdominal were enrolled.There was female predominance with female to male ratio in our study was 2.1:1. Mean age in our study was 31.8 years. Most of the patients (71.7%) belong to the age group of 20-40 years. Majority of cases (78.3%) belonged to rural areas. More than half (58.7%) of our cases were literate while 41.3% were illiterate. Family history of TB was presented in 15.2% and previous history of TB was present in 4.3%. One of our patients (2.2%) was having HIV infection and one was on immunosuppression drugs for rheumatoid arthritis. Patients of abdominal tuberculosis present with vague and non-specific symptoms and thus there wasa delay in diagnosis. Most common symptoms were fever (60.9%), abdominal distension (60.9%), weight loss (58.7%), abdominal pain (50%) and anorexia (50%). Abdominal distension was present in 60.9% of cases and 23.9% had abdominal tenderness Five cases (10.9%) presentedfor the first time as intestinal obstruction in emergency room. Duration from start of symptoms to diagnosis varied from 2 weeks to 3 years with mean duration of 6 months Conclusion: Abdominal tuberculosis affects mostly productive age group. Major proportion of ATB patients belong to rural areas. Diagnosis require high clinical suspicion as patients of abdominal tuberculosis present with vague and non-specific symptoms and thus there is delay in diagnosis
