[A 10-year tuberculosis case load. Symptoms, clinical findings and laboratory data of patients in Glittre Sanatorium].

This article presents retrospective data from a ten-year material consisting of 426 patients with tuberculosis. There was a large difference in age between Norwegian and foreign patients. Median duration of symptoms before treatment was 15 weeks. The most common extrapulmonary form was lymph node tuberculosis, with a striking overpercentage of females. General symptoms were more common among patients with pulmonary tuberculosis than among patients with extrapulmonary forms. In 43% of the patients with pulmonary tuberculosis no abnormal signs were registered by auscultation. Febrile patients became quickly afebrile after start of treatment. 83% of the patients were tb culture-positive. 9.5% of the isolates tested for resistance showed reduced sensitivity to one or more antituberculous drugs. Chest x-ray manifestations were more common in the right than in the left lung. Older people are the main source of tuberculosis in Norway. One should be particularly aware of this diagnosis in immigrants from the Third World.