title: Diagnosis of sputum smear- and sputum culture-negative pulmonary tuberculosis.
abstract: A group of patients with new or enlarging apical lung lesions thought to be tuberculous was randomly selected for observation without treatment. All were tuberculin-positive and all had sputum negative for Mycobacterium tuberculosis on direct examination and on culture. Of the 152 patients, 88 (58%) developed bacteriologically confirmed pulmonary tuberculosis during a follow-up period of up to 65 months.
mesh_terms: D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000302:isolation & purification; D013183:Sputum / Q000382:microbiology*; D014374:Tuberculin Test; D014397:Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology