[Thanatogenesis of respiratory tuberculosis under the present conditions]

Autoptic findings of 120 patients with respiratory tuberculosis indicate that under the present-day conditions, the prevalent cause of death was a progressive tuberculous process as caseous pneumonia (89% of cases), which is much higher than our previous findings (42.9% in 1989 versus 66.% in 1994). Caseous pneumonia chiefly resulted from fibrous-cavernous tuberculosis, less frequently from an independent entity or manifestations of disseminated tuberculosis. Fibrous-cavernous tuberculosis, the major clinical form in the deceased, was frequently associated with specific involvement of intrathoracic lymph nodes (10.8% of cases) and also complicated by the hematogenic generalization of the process (6.7%) and specific pericarditis (5.0%). Progressive tuberculosis resulted in its later detection in a third of cases and irregular treatment in two thirds.