[Variants of the involution of pulmonary tuberculosis]

The results of a many years' clinico-dispensary followup of 1597 patients with focal, infiltrative and disseminated tuberculosis and pulmonary tuberculomas were analysed. Current complex therapy of patients made it possible to distinguish 3 basic variants of the process involution: I--rapid resolution, II--at first rapid and then slow resolution and III-slow resolution. The main factor responsible for one or the other involution variant was a morphologic substrate of the process at the moment of its detection and primarily its recent character and the presence of extensive old specific background in the zone of a repeated outburst. The quality of treatment, including use of rifampicin, was of the decisive importance only in the presence of a recent process and the absence of such a background. Other factors including the patients' age, clinical form, phase and dissemination of the process were not crucial. Recent tuberculosis chemotherapy promoted the acceleration of reparative processes in the lung tissue in the presence of fresh changes.