It is reported not only that the incidence of active tuberculosis has not decreased butalso that the cases of active tuberculosis who had been diagnosed at autopsy for the firsttime may have increased. The background factors and clinical courses of 13 cases of activetuberculosis whom we could not diagnose as tuberculosis until autopsy were investigated.According to the autopsy reports, the three fourths of the cases had active tuberculosislesions in several organs as miliary tuberculosis. All of the cases were treated in seriouscondition of liver cirrhosis, leukemia, and other malignant diseases.
Although fever of unknown origin was an important symptom, it was difficult to makea correct diagnosis because the fever was thought to be originated not from activetuberculosis but from the underlying diseases themselves. It was also difficult to diagnosefrom chest x-ray findings unless tuberculosis was suspected clinically.The education about tuberculosis should be held repeatedly. And we should try to thinkfrom different direction for the strange and unexpected clinical features of the patientswith liver cirrhosis, leukemia, and other malignant diseases.
