RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Fatal but clinically undiagnosed tuberculosis
JF The Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners
JO J R Coll Gen Pract
FD British Journal of General Practice
SP 343
OP 345
VO 33
IS 251
A1 R. M. Whittington
YR 1983
UL http://bjgp.org/content/33/251/343.abstract
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.