On the importance of pleurisy for the development of pulmonary tuberculosis

Pleurisy is usually seen as an early sign of pulmonary tbc. Oeffneg (Zeit. F. Tbc. B. 50. H. 1) re-examined patients with pleurisy who applied to the Munich clinic from 1916-1925. Of the 100 cases, it turned out that 72 had no tbc changes, 25 had progressive pulmonary tuberculosis, 3 cases followed by extrapulmonary tbc. Based on his observations, the author comes to the conclusion that pleural changes alone without concomitant fresh tbc lung lesions in the vast majority do not lead to progressive lung tbc. O. does not consider the observed apical changes in pleurisy as fresh and active tbc, they mostly represent old stalled changes.