The pathology of influenzaWinternitz, M. C. (Milton C.)
Science
The pathology of influenza
Winternitz, M. C. (Milton C.)
Influenza
Another striking feature of the inflammatory process in this disease is
the extensive hemorrhagic exudate expressed clinically in the fresh, red
blood of the abundant sputum. In the tissues the blood is always fairly
well preserved. It may be scattered diffusely through the cellular
exudate (Fig. XXIV) or so abundantly that the area resembles an infarct
(Fig. XXV). These hemorrhagic foci, which vary considerably in size, are
found not only in the cases that terminate fatally within a few days,
but may occur at any time during the acute manifestation of the disease.
They are an exaggerated form of red hepatization and it is difficult to
see how such red foci could ever change to areas of grey pneumonia. It
is a widely accepted statement, in textbooks of Pathology at least, that
the stage of red hepatization in pneumonia follows the period of
engorgement and precedes the grey form. This interpretation is open to
question concerning the lesions that are encountered in influenza, as
well as in those that are seen after gas inhalation. Unquestionably, in
the stage of engorgement the lung has a red appearance, enhanced by the
acellular, serofibrinous exudate in the alveoli through which the
greatly congested vessels are seen. At this stage, the lung has a
translucency on gross examination, which is not the case when the
cellular content of the alveoli is increased. This picture is not the
one spoken of most commonly as red hepatization; for, although it
appears as a relatively red lung in the gross, difficulty is encountered
in its histological correlation, for the exudate is composed, not of red
cells, but largely of serum and fibrin. The red color may persist even
when numerous polymorphonuclear leucocytes and desquamated alveolar wall
cells are within the alveoli, the walls of which are markedly engorged.
Later, as the circulation in the pneumonic zone is impaired, the
alveolar exudate determines the tone of the gross color, and a
considerable number of red blood cells may be overshadowed by the larger
percentage of white ones.
[Illustration:
FIG. XLII. AUTOPSY NO. 133. IS A MUCH LATER STAGE OF THE PROCESS SHOWN
IN FIGURE XXXI. ASSOCIATED WITH THE ENCAPSULATED BRONCHIOLAR AND
PERIBRONCHIOLAR ABSCESS, THERE IS A DIFFUSE ORGANIZATION OF THE
EXUDATE IN THE SURROUNDING ALVEOLI.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. XLIII. THE ALVEOLAR WALLS ARE THIN AND THE EXUDATE OF RED BLOOD
CELLS AND DESQUAMATED EPITHELIUM IS IN PART HYALINIZED.
]
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