Early-onset pulmonary emphysema is uncommon and its pathogenesis is poorly defined. A 30-year-old man was admitted to our intensive care unit with severe respiratory failure. Besides smoking heavily since the 14 years of age, he had habitually inhaled organic solvents, such as toluene, in his adolescence. High-resolution computed tomography showed evident pulmonary emphysema throughout the lung...

Accurate diagnosis and quantification of pulmonary emphysema during life is important to understand the natural history of the disease, to assess the extent of the disease, and to evaluate and follow-up therapeutic interventions. Since pulmonary emphysema is defined through pathological criteria, new methods of diagnosis and quantification should be validated by comparisons against histological...

The pathological hallmarks of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are inflammation of the small airways (bronchiolitis) and destruction of lung parenchyma (emphysema). The functional consequence of these abnormalities is airflow limitation. Airway abnormalities and emphysema interact in a complex fashion in the development of airflow limitation in COPD. In an attempt to improve underst...

Chronic inflammation containing CD8(+) lymphocytes, neutrophils, and macrophages, and pulmonary emphysema coexist in lungs from patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Although this inflammatory response is believed to cause the remodeling that is seen in these tissues, the mechanism(s) by which inflammation causes emphysema have not been defined. Here we demonstrate that interfero...

No medication exists that clearly improves the mortality of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Oxidative molecules, in particular superoxide anions, play important roles in the COPD-associated abnormal inflammatory response and pulmonary emphysema, which arises because of an imbalance in proteases and antiproteases and increased apoptosis. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) catalyzes the dis...

With the greatly increased interest in neonatal morbidity in recent years it is now realized that pneumothorax and pulmonary interstitial emphysema in the newborn period, for many years regarded as medical curiosities, are not uncommon. Indeed, Davis and Stevens (1930) demonstrated the presence of pneumothorax radiologically in 1% of 702 consecutive babies and Solis-Cohen and Bruck (1934) in ap...

BACKGROUND Exacerbations in COPD are often accompanied by pulmonary and systemic inflammation, and associated with increased susceptibility to and prevalence of weight loss and muscle wasting. Muscle mass loss during disease exacerbations may contribute to emphysema-associated muscle atrophy. However, whether pulmonary inflammation in presence of emphysema differentially affects skeletal muscle...

Pulmonary veno-occlusive disease is characterized by remodeling of pulmonary arteries, capillaries and venules. We report a case of diffuse lung emphysema and pulmonary veno-occlusive disease with the characteristic of having no airflow limitation. A very low diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide and results of high-resolution computed tomography of the chest suggested pulmonary veno-occlusive...

Bronchodilators (such as ipratropium bromide), steroids (such as fluticasone propionate), and newly developed anti-inflammatory drugs (such as roflumilast) are used for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We recently reported that lecithinized superoxide dismutase (PC-SOD) confers a protective effect in mouse models of COPD. We here examined the therapeutic effect of the...