Lung biopsy in mitral stenosis.

The recent development of intrathoracic operations upon patients with mitral stenosis has provided an opportunity to study by biopsy the changes in the hearts and lungs of these patients at a time when, although the disease is fully established, the general condition is still good. Since, in addition, the specimens are fixed immediately, all suspicion that the appearances seen are terminal or autolytic is removed. As these patients all undergo cardiac catheterization it is also possible to correlate some of the histological features with the functional disturbances. This paper deals with an investigation of lung biopsies along these lines.