[Bronchial tuberculosis. Radiologic endoscopic and clinical aspects].

Nowadays, bronchial tuberculosis is an uncommon, although probably underestimated, form of tuberculosis. The records of 23 patients hospitalized between 1978 and 1989 were reviewed retrospectively. Mean age was 57 years (range: 22 to 84 years). Only one female patient of african origin was a recent immigrant. The disease was pseudo-tumoral in 2 cases and included lymph node fistulae in 4 cases. M. tuberculosis was found at microscopic examination in only 10 patients. The course of the disease was slow and sometimes erratic, even under a well-conducted medical treatment. In one of the female patients, a lymph node fistula appeared after 6 months of chemotherapy, and it is clear that medical treatment must be pursued well beyond the conventional time limits. Several mechanisms are responsible for bronchial tuberculosis: either invasion of the neighbouring bronchi by pulmonary tuberculosis; or lymph node fistula now more frequently due to reactivation of old lesions than to a recent primary infection; or again primary bronchial lesions mimicking bronchial carcinoma.