Idiopathic disseminated pulmonary ossification.

Disseminated ossification of the lungs is rare. Most of the cases reported in. the literature are associated with mitral stenosis, hemosiderosis and granulomas. Wells and Dunlap,’ in a review of the literature in 1943, stated that about 45 cases of diffuse ossification of the lung unassociated with tuberculous scars had been reported, of which about 35 cases were of the racemose or branching type. Most of these cases were found in the German literature. A review of the English literature since the article by Wells and Dunlap fails to reveal a single case of disseminated pulmonary ossification of the idiopathic type, that is, pulmonary ossification not associated with mitral stenosis or hemosiderosis. Even the rarity of disseminated pulmonary ossification associated with mitral stenosis is stressed by several authors.” Lawson3 in England in 1949 was able to collect 40 cases. Wilson, Sasaki and Johnson’ in 1959 were able to find only 23 cases adequately documented by necropsy or lung biopsy. They stated that other cases have been reported on the basis of radiologic examination, but lacked pathologic confirmation. They found only three confirmed cases in the American literature; to this they added four, all associated with mitral stenosis. The case herein reported is one of disseminated ossification of the lungs of the idiopathic type, not associated with mitral stenosis or hemosiderosis.