There has been a great deal of speculation concerning the significance of the occasional association of hematologic disease with immunosuppressive therapy and active
tuberculosis. We reviewed 52 cases of tuberculosis associated with hematologic disease at Severance Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine between 1979 and 1988.
1. Active tuberculosis(Tbc) was observed in 43 cases(3.4%) among the l,260 cases with hematologic disease requiring immunosuppressive therapy such as anticancer chemotherapy and corticosteroid.
2. The tendency of a relatively high prevalence of active Tbc was noted in myelofibrosis(21.4%), paroxysmal nocturnal hemogloblinuria(20.0%), myelodysplastic syndrome(7.9%), acute myelocytic leukemia(4.9%), and acute Iymphocytic leukemia(4.5%).
3. Thirty-six cases of pulmonary Tbc were observed including 4 cases of pneumonic Tbc and 3 cases of miliary Tbc. There were 7 cases of extrapulmonary Tbc including 4
cases of pleurisy, 2 cases of Iymphadenopathy and a case of spinal Tbc.
4. Among the 43 cases of active Tbc, 10 cases(23% ) were diagnosed during the course of hematologic disease, and in 1 of these cases(10% ), the past history of Tbc was disclosed.
5. The antituberculous treatment resulted in improvement in 64%, no change in 32%, and only 3.6% (one case) had aggravation of Tbc among the 28 evaluable patients. No
deaths were attributable to Tbc.
It might be concluded that no significantly increased incidence of active tuberculous disease would be associated with hematologic disease requiring immunosuppressive
therapy. And the reduced severity noted with a few aggravated Tbc cases in this study may reflect the endemicity of tuberculous infection and concurrent cellular immunity in Korea.

Keywords: Tuberculosis, hematologic disorders,