Bronchial Asthma and Pulmonary Tuberculosis

Bronchial asthma and pulmonary tuberculosis In this series there were 91 cases of asthma and among them 15 patients (16.5 per cent) developed tuberculosis. Of these 15 cases, 13 had rr-ray examinations which showed unilateral disease in 6, and bilateral in 7. The lesions were mostly exudative; one had breakdown and another definite cavities. The sputum was positive in 9 cases, negative in 5, and not examined in the last. The asthmatic symptoms werfe wheezing with rales and rhonchi scattered over both lungs with prolonged expiration; eosinophilia above 4 per cent in 8 and above 20 per cent in 3. In 11 cases tuberculosis appeared 2 to 15 years after the onset of asthma. The details of the 15 patients are given i11 table I. Two other patients who had rales and rhonchi in both lungs and blood eosinophilia of 57 and 10 per cent respectively had never any dyspnoea.