Studies on Epidemic Influenza: Comprising Clinical and Laboratory InvestigationsUniversity of Pittsburgh. School of Medicine
History
Studies on Epidemic Influenza: Comprising Clinical and Laboratory Investigations
University of Pittsburgh. School of Medicine
Influenza; Influenza Epidemic, 1918-1919
at times quite remarkable. It may appear very early in disease. We have
not met with a single case where the emphysema of the lung led to a
rupture of the air sacs and an interstitial infiltration of air through
lung, mediastinum, neck and subcutaneous tissues. Some very remarkable
cases are reported by different authors where this emphysema was of
astounding grade leading to a crepitating infiltration throughout the
mediastinum, neck and the subcutaneous tissues over the thorax and
abdomen as low as the pubis. The milder grade of emphysema consisted
mainly of an abnormal expansion of the air sacs which were not
infiltrated by exudate and which probably had some effect in preventing
the diffusion of the inflammatory fluid from entering certain regions.
These emphysematous areas could be readily recognized by the naked eye
along the anterior borders of the lung as well as between the involved
pneumonic patches within the lung.
These lungs, involved in this early serous and hemorrhagic exudate
varied considerably in their appearance according to the regional and
quantitative involvement. As is seen from Table viii, the lower lobes
were more commonly occupied by massive exudate than the upper, and the
involvement of multiple lobes was the usual. Still more remarkable is
the fact that all lobes were simultaneously involved in some grade of
reaction (pneumonia) in 56 per cent. of cases. In complicated
influenza-pneumonia Goodpasture and Burnett found the inflammatory
reaction in both lungs and involving to a greater or less degree the
lobes on each side. Most commonly this involvement consisted of a lobar
distribution in one or two lobes with a lobular or patchy disposition of
exudate in one or more of the remaining lobes. Where the distribution
was lobar the involved lobe was distended to its fullest and the pleura
tightly stretched over the lung tissue which, heavy with fluid, was not
solid but flabby. The lung could be moulded under the finger and could
be compressed into various shapes. At first sight this flabby, heavy
lung tissue suggested the appearance of the waterlogged lung which one
encounters in renal disease or failing circulation. A closer analysis,
and particularly when the lung was sliced, showed an entirely different
character.
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