선천성 결핵은 대부분의 산모가 무증상이며, 환아의 증상이 호흡곤란, 발열, 간비대와 같이 비특이적이고 패혈증 등의 다른 신생아 질환과 혼돈하기 쉽기 때문에 진단이 어렵고 늦어져 사망하는 경우가 많아 조기 진단이 매우 중요하다. 개발도상 국가에서는 여전히 흔한 질환이며 신생아 시기에 항생제와 보존적 치료에 반응이 없는 경우 반드시 의심해야 할 질환이다. 저자들은 생후 4주째 발생한 발열과 2개월 이상 지속되는 단순 흉부 방사선 소견의 이상으로 발견된 선천성 결핵 1례를 경험하였기에 이를 보고하는 바이다.

Congenital tuberculosis is a rare disease in which an unborn child inside the uterus or right after delivery is infected with tubercle bacillus, due to the mother suffering primary tuberculosis right before pregnancy or during pregnancy. As a newborn who was naturally delivered with a gestational age of 38 weeks, and 3.02 kg in birth weight, he entered another hospital with a fever, which he contracted one month after birth, but the fever continued for 10 days, thus he was transferred to this hospital. Chest radiography, indicated infiltration of both lungs, thus he was treated with suspected pneumonia and sepsis. And then, his symptoms became favorable, and he left hospital. However, since chest radiography one month later, his condition had not improved, thus he was hospitalized again. In a computerized chest tomography scan, infiltration of the lungs and tuberculosis were suspected due to a mysterious region of shadow. A tubercle bacillus test was conducted, and the tuberculin test was negative. However, acid-fast bacilli smear, acid-fast bacilli culture test, and polymerase chain reaction test, which were carried out the gastric aspiration were positive. The patient was administered antitubercular agents under the diagnosis of congenital tuberculosis, and he is currently under observation as an outpatient, without complications. The authors experienced a case of congenital tuberculosis, which was discovered due to fever, generated 4 weeks after birth, and to abnormal views in chest radiography, which continued more than 2 months. We report this. [Pediatr Allergy Respir Dis(Korea) 2007;17:63-67]