What does old tuberculosis mean?

Chronic tuberculosis means that the body has had tuberculosis before, but has since recovered through treatment and does not require any other treatment. People with chronic tuberculosis can actually work and live like normal people. What needs to be noted is that old tuberculosis may recur, which is something friends need to pay attention to.

Pathological characteristics

The old pulmonary tuberculosis mentioned in the diagnostic report of the radiology department refers to the fibrotic lesions and calcifications that appear in the patient's lungs. Such patients do not have symptoms of tuberculosis poisoning such as hot flashes and night sweats, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis cannot be found in their sputum. On a subsequent chest X-ray, there were no changes in the patient's lung lesions.

Treatment

Chronic pulmonary tuberculosis only indicates that the patient has had tuberculosis before, and then recovered completely after treatment or recovered on its own without treatment, and no treatment is required.

People with chronic pulmonary tuberculosis can work and live normally like normal people.

There is a possibility of recurrence of old pulmonary tuberculosis, which is a consequence of pulmonary tuberculosis treatment. However, it cannot be ruled out that there are still dormant tuberculosis bacteria in the lesions, which can easily invade the human body again when the body's resistance is weak. Chronic tuberculosis is a stable tuberculosis lesion, and there are two mechanisms for its formation, namely, cured tuberculosis and self-healing tuberculosis. There are also two reasons for recurrence, namely: endogenous recurrence and reinfection recurrence. The chance of recurrence of reinfection is the same as that of normal people, but it is called a recurrence for people who have had tuberculosis before. As for endogenous recurrence, it depends on whether your disease is cured completely. If it is a sterile lesion, there is no possibility of endogenous recurrence. If there are still dormant tuberculosis bacteria, they may relapse under suitable conditions (low resistance). This is something that normal people do not have, so the possibility of recurrence is greater than that of normal people.

Chronic tuberculosis is the scar left after treatment of tuberculosis. Clinically, there will be no symptoms of tuberculosis poisoning such as hot flashes and night sweats, and the main manifestations are calcification and fibrous foci. Generally speaking, old tuberculosis lesions indicate that the tuberculosis has been cured, and the remaining calcifications and fibrous lesions will no longer disappear. It can be said that chronic pulmonary tuberculosis only indicates that the patient has had tuberculosis before and recovered on his own after treatment. Some people do not know it because their symptoms are not obvious, and they recover on their own without treatment because their body's immunity is strong. This is just like the scar left after a wound on your hand heals and does not need treatment.

Chronic tuberculosis is not contagious and does not affect your health.