Fatal but clinically undiagnosed tuberculosis.
Forty-one instances of active tuberculosis first identified after death by a coroner's autopsy are reported. These constituted 0.3 per cent of the coroner's postmortem examinations and 31 per cent of all deaths from tuberculosis in Birmingham during the five years 1977-81. Many of the deceased in this series had been attended by a general practitioner shortly before death without the true nature of the disease being recognized. The value of a coroner's autopsy in establishing the actual cause of death is emphasized, especially when death might have been prevented by treatment as in many cases of tuberculosis.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001344:Autopsy; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000175:diagnosis*