Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Thorax logoLink to Thorax
. 1975 Aug;30(4):405–414. doi: 10.1136/thx.30.4.405

Postmortem assessment of chronic airways obstruction by tantalum bronchography.

K W Scott, G M Steiner
PMCID: PMC470301  PMID: 1179324

Abstract

Tantalum bronchography was performed on 22 left lungs obtained at necropsy. Seven were from patients dying in cor pulmonale as a result of chronic airways obstruction and 15 were from unselected necropsies. Of the latter group, nine had no evidence of respiratory disease and six had pathological changes of emphysema and bronchial mucous gland enlargement when the lungs were examined following formalin fixation. A range of changes in the bronchographic appearances from the normal to the groosly abnormal is illustrated. The main changes in severely diseases lungs were: irregularity of the bronchial walls, failure of the walls to taper towards the periphery, areas of narrowing and dilatation, and 'pooling' of tantalum at the ends of airways. A count was made of the numbers of small airway branches in the most distal 4 cm of the lung and also of the number of airways of less than 1 mm in diameter. Patients dying in cor pulmonale had a significantly reduced total number of patent small airways in the area measured and also fewer patent airways of less than 1 mm diameter compared to both the other groups. Histological study of four of the lungs in greater detail revealed that the reduction in small airways filling was the result of a combination of obliteration and obstruction of the lumen by pus. Tantalum bronchography provides a good indication of the state of the bronchial tree at the time of death, and the changes seen are the result of both acute and chronic disease processes.

Full text

PDF
405

Images in this article

407Image
on p.407
408Image
on p.408
409Image
on p.409
410Image
on p.410
411Image
on p.411
412Image
on p.412

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Bignon J., Khoury F., Even P., Andre J., Brouet G. Morphometric study in chronic obstructive bronchopulmonary disease. Pathologic, clinical, and physiologic correlations. Am Rev Respir Dis. 1969 May;99(5):669–695. doi: 10.1164/arrd.1969.99.5.669. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Dunnill M. S., Massarella G. R., Anderson J. A. A comparison of the quantitative anatomy of the bronchi in normal subjects, in status asthmaticus, in chronic bronchitis, and in emphysema. Thorax. 1969 Mar;24(2):176–179. doi: 10.1136/thx.24.2.176. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. ESTERLY J. R., HEARD B. E. MULTIPLE BRONCHIOLAR STENOSES IN A PATIENT WITH GENERALIZED AIRWAYS OBSTRUCTION. Thorax. 1965 Jul;20:309–316. doi: 10.1136/thx.20.4.309. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. FLETCHER C. M. Disability and mortality from chronic bronchitis in relation to dust exposure. AMA Arch Ind Health. 1958 Nov;18(5):368–373. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. FULTON R. M., HUTCHINSON E. C., JONES A. M. Ventricular weight in cardiac hypertrophy. Br Heart J. 1952 Jul;14(3):413–420. doi: 10.1136/hrt.14.3.413. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. GRANDEVIA B. The spirogram of gross expiratory tracheobronchial collapse in emphysema. Q J Med. 1963 Jan;32:23–31. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Gamsu G., Thurlbeck W. M., Macklem P. T., Fraser R. G. Peripheral bronchographic morphology in the normal human lung. Invest Radiol. 1971 May-Jun;6(3):161–170. doi: 10.1097/00004424-197106030-00001. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. HEARD B. E. A pathological study of emphysema of the lungs with chronic bronchitis. Thorax. 1958 Jun;13(2):136–149. doi: 10.1136/thx.13.2.136. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Heard B. E., Hossain S. Emphysema in Edinburgh. Pathol Microbiol (Basel) 1970;35(1):167–169. doi: 10.1159/000162218. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Hogg J. C., Macklem P. T., Thurlbeck W. M. Site and nature of airway obstruction in chronic obstructive lung disease. N Engl J Med. 1968 Jun 20;278(25):1355–1360. doi: 10.1056/NEJM196806202782501. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Hughes J. M., Hoppin F. G., Jr, Wilson A. G. Use of stereoscopic x-ray pairs for measurements of airway length and diameter in situ. Br J Radiol. 1972 Jul;45(535):477–485. doi: 10.1259/0007-1285-45-535-477. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. MACKLEM P. T., FRASER R. G., BROWN W. G. BRONCHIAL PRESSURE MEASUREMENTS IN EMPHYSEMA AND BRONCHITIS. J Clin Invest. 1965 Jun;44:897–905. doi: 10.1172/JCI105206. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Matsuba K., Thurlbeck W. M. The number and dimensions of small airways in emphysematous lungs. Am J Pathol. 1972 May;67(2):265–275. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. McLEAN K. H. The pathogenesis of pulmonary emphysema. Am J Med. 1958 Jul;25(1):62–74. doi: 10.1016/0002-9343(58)90199-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Nadel J. A., Wolfe W. G., Graf P. D. Powdered tantalum as a medium for bronchography in canine and human lungs. Invest Radiol. 1968 Jul-Aug;3(4):229–238. doi: 10.1097/00004424-196807000-00001. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. PUMP K. K. THE MORPHOLOGY OF THE FINER BRANCHES OF THE BRONCHIAL TREE OF THE HUMAN LUNG. Dis Chest. 1964 Oct;46:379–398. doi: 10.1378/chest.46.4.379. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. RESTREPO G., HEARD B. E. The size of the bronchial glands in chronic bronchitis. J Pathol Bacteriol. 1963 Apr;85:305–310. doi: 10.1002/path.1700850207. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Roberts G. H., Scott K. W. A necropsy study of pulmonary emphysema in Glasgow. Thorax. 1972 Jan;27(1):28–32. doi: 10.1136/thx.27.1.28. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Scott K. W. An autopsy study of bronchial mucous gland hypertrophy in Glasgow. Am Rev Respir Dis. 1973 Feb;107(2):239–245. doi: 10.1164/arrd.1973.107.2.239. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Thorax are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES