A new pathological entity is here described-a polyalveolar lobe with or without emphysemagiving rise to the clinical features of childhood lobar emphysema. A detailed and quantitative study of the airways, alveoli and arteries was carried out on the left upper lobe removed because of shortness of breath, thought to be due to 'childhood lobar emphysema'. The child was 17 days old and the radiogr...

Fifty-six male patients with pulmonary emphysema and normal serum alpha 1-antitrypsin were followed for a minimum period of three years (range 3-13 yr) to observe the effects of the radiological distribution of emphysema on the annual rate of change of lung function indices. The subjects were placed in three categories--upper zone (UZ), lower zone (LZ), and generalised (G). The influence of smo...

Asbestos fibers are known to cause lung fibrosis, but their role in emphysema is unclear. We wanted to evaluate the relationship between asbestos exposure and emphysema by using high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT). Conventional and high resolution CT was performed on 600 smoking construction workers with an asbestos-related occupational disease. Emphysema subtypes (centrilobular, parasep...

I t is well known that there have been no successful therapeutic interventions for subjects with emphysema. In the 1990s, investigators became very interested in lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS), first described by BRANTIGAN and MUELLER [1] in 1957, as a treatment for severe emphysema. While many sites promoted the use of LVRS for severe emphysema the criteria for the selection of patients,...

RATIONALE Low-grade inflammation and emphysema have been shown to be associated with an increased risk of lung cancer. However, the systemic inflammatory response in patients with emphysema is still unknown. OBJECTIVE TO COMPARE THE PLASMA CYTOKINE PROFILES IN TWO GROUPS OF CURRENT OR FORMER SMOKERS WITHOUT AIRWAY OBSTRUCTION: a control group of individuals without computed tomography (CT) de...

PURPOSE To provide quantitative information on emphysema in asymptomatic smokers in correlation with pulmonary function tests (PFT). PATIENTS AND METHODS The study population included 75 smokers (current smokers: n=39; ex-smokers: n=36) and 25 nonsmokers who underwent volumetric high-resolution CT of the chest with automated quantification of emphysema and PFTs. RESULTS Current smokers had ...

RATIONALE Previous studies have shown associations between dust exposure or lung burden and emphysema in coal miners, although the separate contributions of various predictors have not been clearly demonstrated. OBJECTIVES To quantitatively evaluate the relationship between cumulative exposure to respirable coal mine dust, cigarette smoking, and other factors on emphysema severity. METHODS ...

This study examined the role of cysteine proteinases and their inhibitor in the development of emphysema in comparison with neutrophil elastase (NE) complexed with alpha1-protease inhibitor (NE-alpha1-PI), which was previously demonstrated to be increased in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid from subjects with subclinical emphysema. Eight nonsmokers and 31 current smokers with (n=17) and witho...

Patients afflicted with emphysema demonstrate altered peripheral skeletal muscle fibre composition and atrophy. It is unknown whether these alterations are general to all skeletal muscles independent of function, phenotype or oxidative capacity. Therefore, the purpose of this investigation was to determine whether emphysema induces alterations in muscle fibre composition or atrophy in respirato...

Emphysema is one of the disease conditions that comprise chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Prothymosin α transgenic mice exhibit an emphysema phenotype, but the pathophysiological role of prothymosin α in emphysema remains unclear. Here we show that prothymosin α contributes to the pathogenesis of emphysema by increasing acetylation of histones and nuclear factor-kappaB, particularly upon ...