[Clinically unrecognised tuberculosis in autopsy material (author's transl)].

Among 18,724 unselected postmortems performed between 1955 and 1975 811 (4.33%) cases of post-primary tuberculosis were found among which 370 (45.6%) were active and 441 (54.4%) inactive. Occurrence of death involved tuberculosis in 32% of all cases discovered at autopsy. The age group over 50 years was mainly affected and males were clearly more frequently involved, particularly in pulmonary tuberculosis. 333 cases of tuberculosis (41.1%) had been recognised clinically and had mainly consisted of chronic pulmonary forms. In the older age group the proportion of cases diagnosed prior to death decreased steadily. Tuberculosis was associated with other diseases in most patients, particularly with cardiovascular disease and malignant tumours. During the investigation period the number of patients with active tuberculosis decreased. The number of cases of miliary tuberculosis among the active forms remained approximately the same.