Transitory Pulmonary Infiltrations Mistaken for Tuberculosis, With a Report of Five Cases

Excerpt For some time the chest roentgenogram has been the most valuable diagnostic measure in the recognition of pulmonary tuberculosis. It has been shown repeatedly that physical examination of the chest as the only procedure in the diagnosis of pulmonary diseases is entirely inadequate. Spellman 1 gives an illuminating exposition of this fact in a recent article relating the experience of attempting, by physical examination, to detect pulmonary tuberculosis in army recruits in 1917-1918. It is not the purpose of the present authors, therefore, to minimize the efficacy of the roentgenogram in the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis. Five patients are presented, whose...