[A comparison of clinico-scintigraphic studies with the morphological changes in the lungs in destructive tuberculosis].

Radionuclide findings were compared with morphological changes in resected lung tissue in 78 patients with destructive tuberculosis. In the preoperative period, 30 (38.5%) of 78 patients were found to have significant and much significant changes in regional blood flow while 48 (61.5%) patients had restrictive changes. This provides evidence that 76% of the first diagnosed patients with destructive pulmonary tuberculosis had chiefly inflammatory changes, i.e. the specific process was reversible and only 24% had sclerotic changes. In patients with chronic destructive tuberculosis, sclerotic pulmonary and inflammatory changes were prevalent in 73.6 and 26.4%, respectively. Scintigraphic studies are of great clinical and diagnostic value of characterizing the extent and site of a pathological process in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis, revealing regional circulatory disorders both at the site of a specific process and in the intact areas of the lung, as evidenced by morphological studies.