[Radiological patterns and final diagnosis of patients presumptive of pulmonary tuberculosis with negative sputum smears].

Introduction: the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis in sputum smears-negative patients is a challenge for today's medical practice, mostly supported on clinical and radiographic elements. In Hospital Neumológico Benéfico Jurídico of Havana, there is an expert commission for the sputum smear-negative diagnosis of tuberculosis called CODIBAARNE.

Objective: to identify the radiological patterns and the final diagnosis of patients submitted to this committee from October 2002 to December 2003.

Methods: a descriptive study was conducted in a sample of patients within the above-mentioned period, who had been studied and followed-up in Hospital Neumológico Benéfico Jurídico in order to define their final diagnoses under the CODIBAARNE commission recommendation. Data were gathered from the register of patients and from the individual medical histories.

Results: the average age of these patients was 68.2 years and 57 % were males. The most frequent symptoms were cough (76 %), general syndrome (70 %) and expectoration (61 %). The mostly seen radiographic patterns were infiltrates, with or without cavitation (44 %) and fibrotic lesions (34 %). The most common diagnoses showed bronchiectasia (26 %), followed by sputum smears-negative pulmonary tuberculosis (24 %).

Conclusions: the results of this research work evinced the importance of the work by the group of experts in CODIBAARNE regarding the sputum smears-negative diagnosis of tuberculosis cases.