[Clinical symptoms and course of pulmonary tuberculosis in patients with various types of diabetes mellitus].

Clinical symptoms and progress of pulmonary tuberculosis (PT) were compared for 110 patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) and 40 patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM). PT in IDDM patients is characterized with acute onset and manifest clinical symptoms. The lung involvement becomes rapidly advanced with exudation and multiple small-size foci of destruction. PT in NIDDM runs often asymptomatically and torpidly, specific changes in the lungs seem limited, foci of destruction are solitary and large. More favourable course and outcomes of the disease are registered in IDDM patients which can be related to younger age and early diagnosis of PT.