著者

阿児 博文 三上 理一郎 坂口 泰弘 堅田 均 沢木 政好 前川 純子 米田 三平 成田 亘啓

出版者

JAPANESE SOCIETY FOR TUBERCULOSIS

雑誌

結核 (ISSN:00229776)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.60, no.12, pp.609-616, 1985-12-15 (Released:2011-05-24)

参考文献数

20

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Alcoholics are known to have a high frequency of pulmonary tuberculosis. There have been no report concerning to the relationship between tuberculosis and alcoholism in Japan.147 male patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis were studied for alcohol consumption. Patients were classified into three groups: “habitual” drinkers, “heavy” drinkers, and “non-habitual” drinkers on the basis of the extent of alcohol consumption. Habitual drinkers were defined by those who drink 540 ml or more of sake daily over five years or an equivalent amount of alcohl in other beverages. Heavy drinkers were defined by those who drink 900ml or more of sake daily over ten years. The remainder were defined as non habitual drinkers.Of 147 patients, 16 patients were habitual drinkers, 19 were heavy drinkers, 112 were non habitual drinkers. No statistically significant differences were observed in chest Xray findings and response to therapy. Heavy drinkers were found to smoke much more than non habitual drinkers. In heavy drinkers there was high incidence of negative reaction of immunological skin tests than that on non habitual drinkers. The incidence of both diabetes mellitus and chronic liver disease in heavy drinkers was significantly higher than that in non habitual drinkers.Humoral and/ or cellular immunity were known to be depressed in diabetes mellitus and liver cirrhosis. Many investigators have tried to determine why tuberculosis is common among alcoholics. However, no predisposing factors were demonstrated conclusively. Our data suggest that complications such as diabetes mellitus and/or liver cirrhosis may play a role in the pathogenesis of pulmonary tuberculosis in alcoholics.