1546 Communications to the Editor has also been reported in heroin addicts.’ Recently, we have encountered four cases of hashish addiction with digital clubbing. The detailed clinical and laboratory studies in these patients did not reveal any of the well-known causes of clubbing. No evidence of a familial etiology was discovered. The pathogenesis of clubbing is still controversial. However, in...

Introduction The remarkable advances in pulmonary physiology during the last decade have provided new techniques with which to analyse the complex disorders present in lung disease. The increased precision of these new methods has led to the appearance of symbols, equations, graphs and the frightening paraphernalia of mathematics. The main aim of this article is to show how these measurements h...

Pulmonary function tests (PFT) are a battery of tests that measure lung function and aid in the management of patients with respiratory disease. They are performed using standardized equipment and can be used for diagnosis, prognostication, management and follow-up of patients with pulmonary pathology. Although PFT may not identify the exact pathology, it broadly classifies respiratory disorder...

Pulmonary function testing can be used to quantify lung function, confirm an individual’s functional status, evaluate regimen effectiveness, and determine disability. They may be essential in all candidates for lung resection. However, there are limits in the current testing of pulmonary function. There is new evidence that exercise testing may provide better diagnostic and prognostic informati...

One of the most useful instruments for office practice is the spirometer. Today, the spirometer must find its rightful place alongside the sphygmomanometer, the electrocardiograph, and the ophthalmoscope. Abnormal spirometry is an indicator of increased risk for premature death from all causes. This indication has been known since the time of its invention in 1846 by John Hutchinson, a surgeon....

Previous studies have suggested that excessive losses of FVC and FEV1 were occurring in Vermont granite workers despite the fact that mean quartz levels existing in the industry were below the current OSHA standard of 100 ,ug/m3. We reexamined these losses in granite workers over an 8-year period, testing the workforce biennially from 1979 to 1987. All workers, including stone shed, quarry, and...

The lung, as we now realize, is not a uniform honeycomb ventilated and perfused by homogeneous gas and blood mixtures, nor is it a honeycomb in which any segment is a representative sample of the whole. Instead it is a universe of immensely varied geometrical, physical, and chemical properties in a state of constant flux continually beset by pathogenic stresses. We are, however, just beginning ...

the 10 most important diseases in terms of mortality, morbidity and healthcare costs worldwide, the World Health Organization reported four respiratory diseases: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pneumonia , tuberculosis, and lung cancer [1]. Th e prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease has been shown to be fast growing, mainly in the older population [2]. Up to 20% of patients...