[Respiratory distress in evolutive tuberculosis (6 cases)]

The authors reported six cases of respiratory distress of tuberculous origin over a 3 year period. They underlined the failure to recognize the etiology despite a typical symptomatology and, on the opposite, the diagnostic difficulties met in a former tuberculous patient with chronic bronchitis. They insisted on the persistance of evolutive tuberculosis as a cause of respiratory distress, on the importance of any associated infection and on the little use of assisted ventilation.