[Clinical and functional comparisons in patients with tuberculous pleurisy]

Forty four patients with tuberculous pleurisy or pulmonary tuberculosis complicated by pleurisy were examined. The examination was made before or in the first days after antituberculous chemotherapy. Along with routine methods used to examine patients with tuberculosis, a complex study of external respiration function involved spirometry, air flow/volume on forced expiration, body plethismography, esophageal probing of respiratory mechanics. Analysis indicated that RD was significantly more frequently observed in tuberculous pleurisy concurrent with infiltrative tuberculosis (81%) than in the former alone (50%). Restrictive disorders were diagnosed significantly more commonly in encysted pleurisy than in free one. Obstruction was significantly more frequently encountered in tuberculous changes in the lung (80%) than in pleurisy alone (46%). Statistical analysis demonstrated a significant contingency of the incidence and severity of restrictive disorders and bronchial obstruction, which is likely to suggest of the common tuberculous nature of these ventilatory disturbances. The dynamic and static compliance of the lung significantly decreased as the severity of restriction increased. The spirometric indices, such as total lung capacity (TLC) and forced expiratory volume (FEVI), and the indices of dynamic and static compliance of the lung (Cdyn, Cst) (the correlation coefficient (r) with the degree of restrictive disorders was -0.78, -0.76, -0.48, and -0.45, respectively; p < 0.05) are of the greatest informative value in evaluating restrictive disorders. At the same time, the severity of obstructing lesions correlated with the air flow indices IVS25, IVS50, IVS75, and the Tiffeneau index (r = -0.74, -0.82, -0.81, and -0.75, respectively; p < 0.05).