1959 Volume 8 Issue 2-3 Pages 309-320
For all the benefit of therapeutic progress for pulmonary tuberculosis lately attained, advanced cases of pulmonary tuberculosis would not cease to exist-some of them discovered in advanced state and some others taking a turn for the worse notwithstanding the best possible medical care available.As a means for analyzing the factors influencing the resistance of the “host” against the disease, the author conducted electrocardiographical examination and calculation of serum-albumin values of the “urban group” and the “rural group” of pulmonary tuberculous patients, as well as measurement of serum-potassium values of some of them.The findings were dealt with in relation to the different types of pulmonary tuberculosis, esp.to the far advanced lesions (Type F according to Gakken Classification). Results of deliberation are as follows:
1) Comparison between the “urban group ” and the “rural group” revealed a higher incidence of electrocardiographical abnormalities in the “rural group”; 2) in regard to serumalbumin values, the “rural group” had a higher percentage of hypoalbuminemic cases; 3) serum-albumin values were closely related to the incidence of electrocardiographically abnormal signs; 4) in the Type F, hypoalbuminemic cases were more frequently found. than in other types; 5) exclusively in regard to the Type F, incidence of hypoalbuminemia made no discrimination between the “urban” and the “rural” groups, but the incidence of electrocardiographical abnormalities was definitely higher in the “rural group”. Serum-potassium values of the 18 cases of hypoalbuminemia were measured, and showed the higher incidence of typopotassemia in the “rural group”. This hypopotassemia was regarded not as the condition caused by their pulmonary tuberculosis but as the sequence of undernutrition which had existed since before their illness.And such undernutrition was found to be one of the factors that contribute to the ingravescence of pulmonary tuberculosis.
