Abstract

MARTINEZ PORTUONDO, Ana Ivonne; HURTADO DE MENDOZA AMAT, José  and  GONZALEZ OCHOA, Edilberto. Importance of the pulmonary tuberculosis diagnosis by autopsy in Cuba. Rev haban cienc méd [online]. 2012, vol.11, n.1, pp. 76-85. ISSN 1729-519X.

The quality of medical care and the behaviour of the illness can be valued through the achievement of the pulmonary tuberculosis diagnosis by autopsy. Objective: To determine the patients who died with pulmonary tuberculosis and because of it and to establish the agreement between the clinical and the pathological diagnoses in the analized period. Method: A total of 77 341 necropsies taken from the Cuban national autopsies register were analized taking as reference a period of ten years (1994-2003).The clinical records were examined in those cases in which active tuberculosis was found. Results: The 0,2 % of the patients died with pulmonary tuberculosis and a 0.04 % died because of it. The average age was 69 years and 71 % of the persons were men. Broncho-pneumonia was the most important cause of death. The diagnostic discrepancy between clinical and pathological diagnosis showed a 26 % as the direct cause of death and a 53 % as the basic cause of death. Conclusion: An important percent of the deaths were by broncho-pneumonia and most of the patients died at an advanced age. It was confirmed a low frecuency of active pulmonary tuberculosis and there was diagnostic agreement in half of the patients. There was also a diagnostic disagreement in a third of the cases with direct cause of death. Other investigations could define the factors of the post-mortem cases diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis which keep hidden the transmission of this disease.

Keywords : pulmonary tuberculosis; autopsies; pathological; epidemiology.

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