Despite nearly a half century of studies, it has not been fully understood how pulmonary alveoli, the elementary gas exchange units in mammalian lungs, inflate and deflate during respiration. Understanding alveolar dynamics is crucial for treating patients with pulmonary diseases. In-vivo, real-time visualization of the alveoli during respiration has been hampered by active lung movement. Previ...

During the past ten years a number of techniques and theoretical concepts have been developed for the analysis of various aspects of pulmonary function in health and in disease. An understanding of the principles of modern respiratory physiology enables the physician to provide the proper amount of artificial ventilation to the apneic subject and to assess the nature and the extent of the funct...

Administration of amphophilic drugs to experimental animals causes formation of myeloid bodies in many cell types, accumulation of foamy macrophages in pulmonary alveoli, and pulmonary alveolar proteinosis. These changes are the result of an interaction between the drugs and phospholipids which leads to an alteration in physicochemical properties of the phospholipids. Impairment of the digestio...

s:696:"Pulmonary alveolar microlithiasis (PAM) is classified as an elective dysmetabolic thesaurotic pneumoalveolitis and characterized by the presence within the alveoli of the lungs of myriad of tiny calculi. The classic presentation of the chest radiography is unmistakable with multiple small "sand-like" opacities diffusely involving both lung fields. We present a case of male infertility fo...

The architecture of the lung is discussed with special focus on lung parenchyma. The lung parenchyma is mainly comprised of numerous air-containing passages and intervening fine structures, corresponding to alveolar ductal lumens and alveoli, as well as alveolar septa and small pulmonary vessels occupying 10% of total parenchymal volume. The shapes and relative arrangements of alveolar ducts an...

Small airways are the major site of airflow obstruction in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This is attributed to loss of elastin in alveoli and fibrosis in small airways. In the present study, it was hypothesised that changes to elastic fibres in alveoli might be paralleled by a similar reduction in elastic fibres in small airways. Tissue blocks from patients who had lobectomy for...