Sixty three patients with tuberculosis pleurisy, 47 males and 16 females aged from 17 to 97, were studied clinically and further on the factors influencing the subside process of pleural effusion and fever.
Tubercle bacilli were detected in 6 patients (9.5%) in pleural effusion. The positivity of pleural biopsy was 62.6% (23/37). The main subjective symptoms were fever, cough and chest pain. Twenty five patients (39.7%) were accompanied by active extrapleural tuberculosis. Purified protein derivative skin test was performed in 59 patients and 12 (20.3%) were not positive.
Subside pattern of pleural effusions were divided into three groups; pleural effusions subside almost completely within two months after chemotherapy (type 1), pleural effusions decrease markedly within two months after chemotherapy, however, there are some shadows as related to the pleurisy at that time (type 2), and pleural effusions decrease much slower than type 2 (type 3). Pleural effusions subsided more rapidly in younger patients and in the group treated earlier with chemotherapy. Normalization of body tem perature tended the same pattern as subside pattern of pleural effusions.
