Abstract:

Senile pulmonary tuberculosis patients have unique clinical features: untypical clinical symptoms and imaging, higher male prevalence, more comorbidities and complications, high bacterial positive rate and retreatment rate and high drug adverse reactions. Early detection and early diagnosis of senile pulmonary tuberculosis should be achieved by the pathogen and histological evidence combined with the patient’s clinical symptoms, imaging and epidemiology. At the same time, strengthen the publicity and education of knowledge in elderly tuberculosis patients, improve the quality of diagnosis and treatment services, supervise the whole process, standardize diagnosis and treatment had important role. Traditional Chinese medicine as a adjuvant treatment in senile TB patients had obvious advantages in improving the clinical symptoms of patients, increasing the negative rate of sputum bacteria, reducing the toxic and side effects of anti-tuberculosis drugs, improving the body immunity and the cure rate. This is worthy of further verification and promotion.

Key words: Tuberculosis, pulmonary, Aged, Disease attributes, Early diagnosis, Medicine, Chinese traditional, Review literature as topic