Pulmonary Tuberculosis in Pregnant Women

Tuberculosis case-finding in 13,600 pregnant women who registered at the Chicago Board of Health Prenatal Clinics resulted in the detection of 20 new cases and 61 old cases of pulmonary tuberculosis. This was accomplished by routine radiographic examination of the chest. The incidence of positive x-ray evidence of pulmonary tuberculosis was 0.6 per cent. In 1951, Bundesen 3 reported an incidence of 0.8 per cent in the same clinic population. Routine chest x-ray films not only detect unsuspected cases of pulmonary tuberculosis, but the method is instrumental in "recapturing" for re-evaluation many women with tuberculosis previously detected but who were lost to follow-up for one or more years. A loop-hole in the case-finding program is demonstrated by the fact that approximately 20 per cent of registered prenatal patients fail to be screened properly. The maintenance of all diagnostic and therapeutic facilities under one roof would probably plug this loop-hole. Preliminary screening by tuberculin testing needs furthers consideration and evaluation.