A system of practical medicine. By American authors. Vol. 3 : $b Diseases of the respiratory, circulatory, and hæmatopoietic systems
Science
A system of practical medicine. By American authors. Vol. 3 : $b Diseases of the respiratory, circulatory, and hæmatopoietic systems
Medicine -- Practice
Consequently, the anatomical changes resulting from acute catarrhal
bronchitis are, in the early stage, more or less intense congestion of
blood in the vessels, causing redness and tumefaction of the membrane,
soon followed by an increased flow of mucus, with increase or
proliferation of mucous corpuscles and epithelium-cells, while
leucocytes or white corpuscles are seen permeating the capillary walls
and penetrating the submucous tissue or mingling with the increased
epithelium upon the surface. These several inflammatory products are
seen adhering to the surface of the inflamed membrane and in the
smaller tubes, often so filling their calibre as to greatly interfere
with the ingress and egress of air through them, and of course adding
to the dyspnoea that characterizes the capillary form of bronchitis.
During the latter stage of the disease pus-corpuscles are seen freely
intermingled with the mucus, and, owing to the exfoliation of much of
the epithelium, the surface of the mucous membrane often appears
irregular, abraded, or ulcerated.
When the inflammation has been protracted into a chronic form, the
vessels appear less congested, but the cell-proliferations continue
both in the mucous and submucous structures, causing thickening and
increased density, with a still more purulent quality of secretion. The
bronchial glands are also {176} sometimes found enlarged, and either
softened, colored with pigment, or, more rarely, calcified.
In addition to the foregoing changes, in many cases of the capillary
form of bronchitis some lobules of the lungs are found collapsed from
the complete occlusion of the bronchi leading to them by the
accumulation of tenacious mucus with other inflammatory products. And
in the same cases the air-cells in other parts of the lungs, more
frequently the upper and anterior parts, are enlarged from
over-distension, constituting a degree of emphysema.
In very chronic cases, especially of the rheumatic variety,
considerable hypertrophy of the connective tissue of the bronchi has
been found, and in other cases atrophy of the same tissue, the latter
generally accompanied by more or less dilatation of the tubes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account