TUBERCULOSIS IN THE AGED
1978 Volume 53 Issue 11 Pages 527-535
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1978 Volume 53 Issue 11 Pages 527-535
About 30% of tuberculosis patients admitted to our hospital are above 60 years of age. Development of potent chemotherapy regimen containing INH and RFP has been successful in overcoming difference in the rate of sputum conversion between young and old patients. But as residual lung lesions after chemotherapy are by far more marked in old patients, they suffer, accelerated by the influence of aging, from severe respiratory insufficiency. About 50% of the aged tuberculosis patients are complicated with other diseases, sometimes difficult to treat, and 6-9% of the new admission to the nontuberculous chest disease ward under the diagnosis of lung cancer or lung abscess were tuberculosis. It is also necessary to differentiate atypical mycobacteria especially Myc intracellulare from Myc. tuberculosis, for it is very frequently found in the aged.
