[To the problem of abacillary caverns in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis]

Less interest has been recently shown in the so-called openly negative syndrome in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis, which occasionally results in healing of tuberculous caverns to form a cystoid cavity. The materials presented in this paper suggest that in the 1960s the openly negative syndrome occurred after chemotherapy in 8.7% of the patients registered at a tuberculosis facility for destructive pulmonary tuberculosis. This syndrome persists for 3 years or more (according to the data of bacterioscopy, sputum inoculation and biological test on guinea pigs). Of great interest are the data of histological study made under the head of Prof. V. I. Puzik on experimental animals. The absence of specific reactions in response to a biological test and the presence of significant lymphoid focal and diffuse infiltration in the lungs, hyperplasia of follicles of the spleen and lymph nodes allow them to be regarded as immunomorphological reactions in response to the protein components of destroyed Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MBT). The long existing openly negative syndrome is also presented observed in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis but only in those who isolate MBT sensitive to antituberculous agents. In this connection, it is not inconceivable that special reparative processes that do not result in the long (3 years or more) existing openly negative syndrome in patients with destructive pulmonary tuberculosis who isolate resistant MBT forms.