The problem of unsuspected tuberculosis during pregnancy in the negro: Incidence by roentgenologic techniques in 1,000 consecutive cases

Abstract

1.1. One thousand consecutive patients attending the Prenatal Clinie of the Provident Hospital and Training School were examined for pulmonary tuberculosis by fluoroscopy and x-ray.2.2. Eighteen cases, 1.8 per cent, of unsuspected clinically important tuberculosis and 11 additional cases, 1.1 per cent, of clinically unimportant reinfection tuberculosis, a total of 29 cases, or 2.9 per cent, were found by this technique. This incidence was found to be approximately the same as for other nonpregnant women of the same age groups examined at Provident Hospital.3.3. These findings are compared with those reported by Eisele and associates1 at the Chicago Lying-in Hospital, where the incidence of unsuspected clinically important tuberculosis was 1.0 per cent. It is concluded that the difference is probably due more to the different economic and social status of the two groups than to race, or to a slight difference in their age distributions.4.4. The finding of so high an incidence, especially in the Negro in whom tuberculosis tends to run a more unfavorable course, serves to confirm the contention that routine chest roentgenologic examinations should be an indispensable part of the prenatal care of Negro pregnant women.