[Characteristics and causes of the torpid (lingering) course of intrathoracic tuberculosis in children, the specific features of chemotherapy and outcomes].

To study the causes of the torpid course of intrathoracic tuberculosis in children and to develop preventive measures and effective treatment options, the authors conducted clinical, X-ray, microbiological, immunological, and biochemical studies and treated 90 children with the torpid course of intrathoracic tuberculosis. The specific features of detection and the clinical, X-ray, and laboratory characteristics of a process were studied. A procedure of chemotherapy was devised, which could achieve recovery in 55.

[The phenotypes of haptoglobin and the level of acute-phasic proteins in the sera of children with local form of intrathoracic tuberculosis].

Seventy-seven children aged 4-12 years who had local forms of primary intrathoracic tuberculosis were examined. On admission to and discharge from hospital, haptoglobin (Hp) was phenotyped and the content of Hp was measured, and the activity of alpha1-antitrypsin (alpha1-AT) was determined. In all ill children, the distribution of Hp phenotypes did not differ from the normal level, but all patients with tuberculous pleurisy were found to be carriers of Hp1 gene (among them the phenotype Hp 2-2 was absent and the minor variant of Hp 1-1 was detectable in half the cases).

[Diagnosis of latent primary intrathoracic tuberculosis of respiratory system in the phase of calcification in children].

The paper shows the latent activity of newly diagnosed intrathoracic tuberculosis in the phase of calcification in children: clinical and X-ray changes, tuberculin sensitivity (Manteaux test), the presence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MBT) in the sputum and blood (cultivation, bacterioscopy, polymerase chain reaction PCR), the blood levels of acute-phase reagents: haptoglobin and alpha 1-protease inhibitor (alpha 1-PI), immunological parameters, tuberculosis antibodies (TAb), and MBT antigen. Ninety children were examined before treatment. Twenty-five children (Group 1) were found to have single minor calcified masses in one group of intrathoracic lymph nodes or in the lung.

[New technologies in the prevention, detection, diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis in children].

If the epidemiological situation is tense, new technologies should be developed and put into practice to enhance the efficiency of specific prevention, early detection, diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis in children. There is evidence for the high efficacy and low reactogenicity of lower antigenicity-loading BCG-M vaccine that causes a 15-fold decrease in infant morbidity, as compared with that among non-vaccinated children, and this vaccine shows a 5-fold reduction in postvaccination complications as compared with BGC vaccine. The 26-year use of tuberculin diagnosis via Mantoux test with 2TE PPD-L during mass vaccination of children and adolescents has proved itself in early identification of tuberculosis and risk groups.