[Diagnosis of spherical formations in the lungs]

240 patients with circular formations in the lungs were examined. Among those diagnosed were tuberculomas, cancer, benign tumors, pulmonary cysts, pneumonias and pulmonary fibrosis. The coincidence of referral and clinical diagnoses was registered merely in 17.5% of the cases. The majority (60.2%) of patients were admitted to a hospital being diagnosed as "circular formation in the lung" which is not justified from typical characteristics of the diseases. The difficulties in diagnosis were in many cases caused by the similarity of the clinical picture observed, a small number of pathognomonic signs and a relative validity of certain typical X-ray symptoms.