Diagnosis of Intestinal Tuberculosis

¹ Hopemont, West Virginia

Ulcerative intestinal tuberculosis is always a complication of pulmonary disease occurring usually in far-advanced cases with cavity and positive sputum. Although most cases show a classical symptomatology, yet many other diseases resemble it and no one group of symptoms is pathognomonic. Laboratory aids and physical examination are of little help in diagnosis. The x-ray is, at the present time, our best means of diagnosis, and positive x-ray findings may be obtained in 80 per cent of all cases of enteritis. A positive diagnosis is correct in over 95 per cent of cases; a negative one with highly suggestive symptoms is only 30 per cent reliable, and a suspicious one is less than 50 per cent reliable. The diagnosis in suspicious x-ray cases may be cleared up with diagnostic pneumoperitoneum. A group of about 20 per cent of enteritis cases presents normal x-ray findings and in these a careful history and therapeutic pneumoperitoneum will usually clear up the diagnosis.