BACKGROUND All-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) stimulates elastin synthesis by lung fibroblasts and induces alveolar regeneration in animal models of pulmonary emphysema. However, ATRA treatment has had disappointing results in human emphysema. It was hypothesised that a defect in the ATRA signalling pathway contributes to the defect of alveolar repair in the human emphysematous lung. METHODS Fibr...

BACKGROUND Accumulating evidence shows that functional impairment in subjects with coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP) is principally due to emphysema and airflow obstruction, rather than underlying restrictive mechanisms. However, cigarette smoking has remained a major confounder. The aim of this study was to assess whether coal dust exposure was associated with emphysema and/or airflow obstruc...

The lungs and hearts from 50 patients were examined using morphometric techniques to determine the size of the right ventricle, the amount, type, and distribution of emphysema, the size of the bronchial mucous glands, and the proportion of the lung occupied by small airways of less than 2 mm diameter. The patients were divided into three groups according to the clinical history: 18 died as a re...

Background: Airflow limitation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is caused by a mixture of small airway disease and emphysema, the relative contributions of which may vary among patients. Phenotypes of COPD classified purely based on severity of emphysema are not well defined and may be different from the classic phenotypes of ‘‘pink puffers’’ and ‘‘blue bloaters’’. Methods: To ch...

BACKGROUND Farmer's lung (FL) is a common type of hypersensitivity pneumonitis. It is often considered that fibrosis is the most frequent finding in chronic FL. Nevertheless, three cohort studies have suggested that some patients with chronic FL may develop emphysema. We aimed to evaluate the current prevalence of emphysema in active FL, to describe the radiological and functional features of e...

Emphysema is characterized by the permanent abnormal enlargement of airspaces distal to the terminal bronchioles, accompanied by destruction of their walls. The characteristics of emphysema do not, by definition, include thickening of the alveolar septa and fibrosis. However, coincidental idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and emphysema was firstly reported in 1990 by Wiggins et al (Wiggins J,...

The objectives of the present study were to reappraise chest radiography for the diagnosis of emphysema, using computed tomography (CT) as the reference standard, and to establish whether or not chest radiography is useful for phenotyping chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Patients (n = 154) who had undergone posteroanterior and lateral chest radiography and CT for diagnostic purpose...

OBJECTIVES Emphysema is one of the prognostic factors for rapid lung function decline in patients with COPD, but the impact of incidentally detected emphysema on population without spirometric abnormalities has not been evaluated. This study aimed to determine whether emphysema detected upon computed tomography (CT) screening would accelerate the rate of lung function decline and influence the ...

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) may provide crucial support in the regeneration of destructed alveolar tissue (emphysema) chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We hypothesized that lung-derived MSCs (LMSCs) from patients with emphysema are hampered their repair capacity, either intrinsically or due to interaction damaged microenvironment. LMSCs were isolated lung controls and severe ch...

Subcutaneous and mediastinal emphysema after head and neck procedures is a rare phenomenon; however, its incidence has increased alongside the development of instruments for medical procedures. We report two cases of subcutaneous emphysema and mediastinal emphysema after dental procedures. In case 1, the entry of air was a laceration in the oral floor and an emphysema developed from the submand...