An Evaluation of Tuberculin Tests and Correlating Roentgenograms

¹ From Boehne Tuberculosis Hospital, Evansville, Indiana

1. Of the 3,559 individuals who were tested with diagnostic doses of tuberculin and examined by x-ray, 48.0 per cent were found to be infected with tuberculosis.

2. If the tuberculin test alone were employed, the incidence would be 32.0 per cent infection. If the x-ray were the only medium of finding infection, the incidence would be 33.0 per cent. The incidence, according to x-ray and tuberculin, in different age groups was noted.

3. Sixteen (16.0) per cent were anergic to diagnostic doses of tuberculin, while 15.0 per cent were positive to tuberculin and had either masked or non-pulmonary lesions.

4. In this locality, if 48.0 per cent of the population (100,000) are infected with the germs of tuberculosis, with a mortality rate of 0.07 per cent and a morbidity rate of 0.01 per cent, the suggestion is made that they possess a relative immunity to the "White Plague".