The Evolving Rules Of The Active Pulmonary Tuberculosis And The Relation Between The Pulmonary Function

Objectives: To observe the evolving rules of the pulmonary pathological changes manifested by CT of the active tuberculosis patients after they have been cured. To evaluate the relation between the CT and the pulmonary function.Methods: Collect 60 smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis patients who have been bacteriologically cured. Observe their CT sign-changes of pre-, post-treatment and during the 6-month follow-up peirods. Use post-expiratory CT scans to observe the small airways obstruction and air-trapping sign Study the correlation of the volume of air-trapping and the pulmonary function tests.Results: During the three stages of pre-, post-treatment and during the 6-month follow-up periods, the checking rates of CT images of active pulmonary tuberculosis are 95.0%,31.7% and 3.3% respectively. During the follow-up periods without medicine, there are still 39 patients (76.5%), whose residual lesions have been reduced and absorbed. Small airway diseases still exist after treatment. FEF_50% and MMEF are significantly correlated in the volume of air-trapping and pulmonary function indexes(P<0.01).Conclusions: CT image changes of the pulmonary pathological changes take place after the bacteriological changes. There exists limitation in judging pulmonary tuberculosis activity only with CT in the post-treatment period. CT has high diagnostic values in judging the secondary small airways injury after the bacteriological treatment.