K. Albert Harden

The tuberculin test in pregnancy

Abstract Of 2,357 Negro females tested for tuberculosis during the prenatal period, 9.6 per cent of them had positive reactions (a figure substantially less than that quoted for the general population of the District of Columbia). Except for two known inactive cases of reinfection type tuberculosis, no new pulmonary lesions of this type were found on subsequent x-ray. These results compare favorably with earlier investigations. In a limited study, variation in the amount of tuberculin reaction in women in the pregnant and nonpregnant states appeared to parallel the fluctuations found in nonpregnant individuals. Tuberculin testing of pregnant women is still a valid and most feasible method of case finding and should be continued as long as the incidence of positive reactors indicates a significant reservoir of preinfection. Our findings over a 6 year span suggest a decrease in the the number of pregnant women who were at some time infected by tuberculosis.