Recent advances in respiratory medicine.

Abstract

Summary In the past tuberculosis so dominated both public and professional views of respiratory medicine that it seemed obvious that the speciality must atrophy, at least in developed countries, when effective therapy for tuberculosis became available. The reality has been rather different. New discoveries in understanding of pathogenesis, in diagnostic methods, and above all in treatment, continue to keep respiratory medicine to the fore amongst the major sub-specialities of medicine, a position that the burden of such disease on society clearly merits. The topics chosen for this review are necessarilv personal, but aim to indicate some areas where these discoveries are being applied in clinical practice today.