[Autopsy correlations in the clinical diagnosis of serious diseases caused by infections in the practice of a general hospital].

The author correlated in a group of 1100 autopsies made in 1987-1989 the clinical and autoptic diagnosis of active tuberculosis of the lungs and organs, bacterial meningitis, acute and subacute endocarditis, septicaemia, acute cholangitis, diffuse suppurative peritonitis, renal infections, and pneumonias. Class I diagnostic errors, i.e. those where knowledge of the diagnosis before autopsy would have probably changed therapy and the prognosis, were encountered in all groups of correlated diseases, however, with a high frequency in tuberculosis of the lungs and organs, septicaemia, renal infections and pneumonias. It seems that the diagnostic vigilance to some common serious diseases caused by infections declines in the practice of general hospitals. This experience was recorded also in hospitals abroad. Causes of diagnostic errors are discussed.