[Differential diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis and community-acquired pneumonia]

The purpose of this investigation was to enhance the efficiency of differential diagnosis of pneumonia and pulmonary tuberculosis. A hundred and fifty-nine adult patients were examined. These included 78 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis and 81 with community-acquired p neumonia. The clinical features of infiltrative pulmonary tuberculosis (n = 48) and mild community-acquired pneumonia (n = 51) were compared. The course of caseous pneumonia (n = 30) was compared with that of moderate and severe community-acquired pneumonia (n = 30). Significant differences in the manifestations of the intoxication and bronchopulmonary syndrome were not found in patients with community-acquired pneumonia and infiltrative pulmonary tuberculosis. Physical studies showed that in patients with community-acquired pneumonia, moist rale (54.9%) and crepitation (11.8%) were prevalent, but in those with infiltrative tuberculosis rale was absent in 60.4% of cases and the pattern of respiration was unchanged in 79.2%. Chest X-ray studies indicated that in patients with community-acquired pneumonia, lower lobar inflammatory changes were predominant in 62.8% of cases whereas in those with infiltrative pulmonary tuberculosis the process was mainly bilateral (43.8%) with the presence of destructive changes (83.3%) and bronchogenic dissemination (66.7%). In patients with caseous pneumonia, the intoxication syndrome was more significant than in those with severe community-acquired pneumonia. Chest X-ray studies demonstrated that in patients with caseous pneumonia, specific changes were bilateral with the involvement of 2 lobes or more, with destruction and bronchogenic dissemination while in those with community-acquired pneumonia, the pulmonary processes were predominantly bilateral (76.6%) at the lower lobar site (36.7%).