Starichek H. Densitometry of focal lung changes in the evaluation of antimycobacterial therapy in patients with tuberculosis

An object of study: the firstly diagnosed sensitive and chemo-resistant pulmonary tuberculosis; the aim is to improve diagnostics and assessment of the treatment and relapse risk effectiveness in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis by using densitometric parameters of computed tomography; study methods are common clinical, instrumental, laboratory, radiological, and statistical; novelty – for the first time, an objective standardized parameter, computer densitometry, has been used to evaluate initial and control examinations in the treatment of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis; it has been found that low activity of the tuberculous process is defined with an average density (87,9 ± 24,6) HU, the moderate activity – with a value of density within (38,9 ± 15,9) HU and high activity – with an average density (28,9 ± 2,8) HU; for the first time, it has been found that in patients with chemo-resistant pulmonary tuberculosis, 62,2 % of the foci have a tendency to induration, and in patients with sensitive firstly diagnosed pulmonary tuberculosis, 63,4 % of the foci have a tendency to resorption (р < 0,01); for the first time, it has been proved that in 26,0 % of patients with chemo-resistant pulmonary tuberculosis after the completion of treatment main course, the foci of active inflammatory process, which can lead to the development of relapse, remain. The field of use is medicine.