[Doppler-echocardiographic examination of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis]

Echocardiography of 110 newly diagnosed patients with pulmonary tuberculosis was undertaken to find anatomic changes and certain blood flow indices in the right heart. These changes were represented by an enlarged chamber of the left ventricle in over half of the patients and that of the left atrium in 1/3 of them (including myocardial hypertrophy also detected most commonly in the ventricular septum in 1/3 of the cases); fibroplastic changes in the anterior wall and ventricular septum; and induration of the cusps and semilunums of the tricuspid and pulmonary valves with subvalvular structures in 1/5 of the patients. In addition to hypertrophy of the ventricular septum, an enlarged chamber of the right ventricle and the left atrium was most frequently revealed in patients with primary tuberculous process. Fibroplastic changes in the myocardium plus calcinosis were traced in the majority of the patients with disseminated tuberculosis. Higher blood pressure in the outlet chamber of the right ventricle was mostly observed in patients with intrathoracic lymph nodes and disseminated tuberculosis, elevated pressure largely coinciding with right ventricle and pulmonary artery dilatation.