[BCG-induced inflammation during childhood and in pregnancy. Additionally a contribution to BCG-induced necrotising cerebral arteritis].

In the third year of life of a girl vaccinated neonatally against tuberculosis an abscess of the associated lymph nodes appeared which contained acid-fast bacilli. After extirpation of the lymph nodes weeks later an intestinal BCG-dissemination was observed which seemed to be cured under a brief tuberculostatic therapy. At the age of 22 years a left sided hemiplegia due to aneurysms and thrombosis of 2 cerebral arteries was seen. At autopsy in the adventitia of the arteria basilaris macrophages were discovered which showed intracellular acid-fast bacilli. A paralysis of the oculomotor nerve appearing later was also caused by this brain lesion. Towards the end of a pregnancy a serious BCG-dissemination in the intestines relapsed. A healthy premature child was born. Massive tuberculostatic therapy was inefficient. The woman died in her 27th year of life. A defective function of the macrophages is suggested for the immunological abnormality.