[The significance of tuberculosis today and its pathomorphism, demonstrated in postmortem material]

In spite of the great decrease in morbidity and mortality, tuberculosis still is important in autopsies. In our postmortem investigations on 65,002 unselected adults, from 1961 to 1985 we found 2,633 (4.1%) cases of tuberculosis, among them 1,471 (2.3%) inactive and 1,162 (1.9%) active forms. The frequency of active tuberculosis fell continuously to about 1% of all autopsies performed. The average age of death of tuberculosis increased strongly, the peak being at present between 71 and 80 years. The number of tuberculosis death below 50 years decreased from about 22% (1962) to 7% in recent years. Severe exudative-cavernous tuberculosis receded, as compared to more uncharacteristic forms. Nevertheless, real pathomorphosis of tuberculosis has not occurred.