silicosis is considered to be among the occupational lung diseases and associated with sandblasting, mining, quarrying and tunneling. acute silicosis is usually progressive diseaseand despite treatment with corticosteroids it leads to cardio-respiratory failure and death. alveolar silicoproteinosis is one of it’s acute presentations due to exposure to silica dust and lungs filling with proteina...

Pulmonary alveolar microlithiasis is a rare diffuse lung disease characterized by widespread sand-like intra-alveolar calcifications (calcospherites composed of calcium and phosphorus). Around 800 cases have been reported in the literature to date. We report here a case of a 35 years old female with prolonged h/o of exertional dyspnoea and mild cough. Clinical examination was mostly normal. Her...

Although intravenous Escherichia coli endotoxin has been used extensively in experimental studies to increase lung endothelial permeability, the effect of E. coli endotoxin on lung epithelial permeability has not been well studied. To examine this issue in sheep, bidirectional movement of protein across the lung epithelial barrier was studied by labeling the vascular space with 131I-albumin and...

To study the rate and regulation of alveolar fluid clearance in acute pneumonia, we created a model of Pseudomonas aeruginosa pneumonia in rats. To measure alveolar liquid and protein clearance, we instilled into the airspaces a 5% bovine albumin solution with 1.5 microCi of 125I-human albumin, 24 h after intratracheal instillation of bacteria. The concentration of unlabeled and labeled protein...

We have previously demonstrated that fetal ethanol exposure deranges the function and viability of the neonatal alveolar macrophage. Although altered differentiation of the alveolar macrophage contributes to pulmonary disease states within the adult lung, the effects of fetal ethanol exposure on the normal differentiation of interstitial to alveolar macrophage in the newborn lung are unknown. I...

Although studies of the composition of alveolar air have been invaluable to the advance of respiratory physiology a precise definition of alveolar gas pressures and the accurate sampling of alveolar air have proved elusive goals (1). Owing to the cyclic nature of the ventilatory process the partial pressures of 02 and CO2 in the alveoli are changing continually (time factor) (9), and, owing to ...