The patient was a 90-year-old woman with chief complaints of hemoptysis and wheezing. Cervical computed tomography (CT) scans revealed a mass (2.5x2.0 cm) in the right lobe of the thyroid. The mass was exposed into the tracheal lumen, causing marked stenosis of the airway. When examined by bronchoscopy, the maximal degree of airway stenosis was about 75% of the tracheal cross section. During su...

This research examines the evolution and phylogenetic distribution of a peculiar and often overlooked character seen in birds, herein called tracheal and esophageal displacement. Tracheal and esophageal displacement refers to an asymmetrically situated trachea and/or esophagus along the length of the neck. This contrasts with what would be perceived as the "normal" (midsagittal) placement of th...

To investigate age-related changes in the shape of trachea, normal male volunteers (n = 83, mean +/- SD: 47.7 +/- 20.2 years old) underwent inspiratory CT scans at full inspiration and lung function tests. Subjects who showed VC < 80% predicted or FEV1 < 80% predicted on lung function tests were excluded. The CT data, which is located at 2.0 cm above the aortic arch, were transferred to a perso...

The transfer of water across the airway epithelium is closely related to the transepithelial potential difference (PD). Thus, PD should be directly involved in the regulation of airway intraluminal water content and, by extension, mucus rheology. Experiments by Boucher and co-workers (J Appl Physiol, 1980; 48: 169; and 1981; 51: 706) indicated that the values of PD in the small airways of dogs ...

BACKGROUND Adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) of the trachea is rare. The clinical manifestations, natural history, and responses to therapy differ from those of other malignant tracheal tumors. METHOD In this retrospective study, we examined pathological records of patients in the Department of Pathology at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital from 1990 through 2002. There were five male patients and tw...