PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Whittington, R. M.
TI  - Fatal but clinically undiagnosed tuberculosis
DP  - 1983 Jun 01
TA  - The Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners
PG  - 343--345
VI  - 33
IP  - 251
4099  - http://bjgp.org/content/33/251/343.short
4100  - http://bjgp.org/content/33/251/343.full
SO  - J R Coll Gen Pract1983 Jun 01; 33
AB  - Forty-one instances of active tuberculosis first identified after death by a coroner's autopsy are reported. These constituted 0.3 per cent of the coroner's postmortem examinations and 31 per cent of all deaths from tuberculosis in Birmingham during the five years 1977-81. Many of the deceased in this series had been attended by a general practitioner shortly before death without the true nature of the disease being recognized. The value of a coroner's autopsy in establishing the actual cause of death is emphasized, especially when death might have been prevented by treatment as in many cases of tuberculosis.