[A comparison of clinico-scintigraphic studies with the morphological changes in the lungs in destructive...

Radionuclide findings were compared with morphological changes in resected lung tissue in 78 patients with destructive tuberculosis. In the preoperative period, 30 (38.5%) of 78 patients were found to have significant and much significant changes in regional blood flow while 48 (61.5%) patients had restrictive changes. This provides evidence that 76% of the first diagnosed patients with destructive pulmonary tuberculosis had chiefly inflammatory changes, i.e. the specific process was reversible and only 24% had sclerotic changes. In patients with chronic destructive tuberculosis, sclerotic pulmonary and inflammatory changes were prevalent in 73.6 and 26.4%, respectively. Scintigraphic studies are of great clinical and diagnostic value of characterizing the extent and site of a pathological process in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis, revealing regional circulatory disorders both at the site of a specific process and in the intact areas of the lung, as evidenced by morphological studies.