We thank Dr Milne for his thoughtful comments about our recent article (1). The diagnostic utility of small vessel measurements obtained with CT has been demonstrated previously. For example, the ratio between the diameters of the segmental artery and lobar bronchiole in patients with pulmonary hypertension (PH) and chronic thromboembolic disease was found to be elevated in 50% of patients comp...

BACKGROUND Restrictive atrial septal defect (ASD) (including intact atrial septum [IAS]) has been reported to be a risk factor that negatively impacts survival in hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS). Although lymphangiectasia and "arterialization" of the veins of the lung in HLHS with restrictive ASD have been reported, they cannot fully explain the high mortality. We have introduced a new m...

In our previous inhalation studies on health effects of the asbestos substitute, potassium octatitanate whiskers (POW), we showed that an excess amount of POW deposition in the rat lung increased biopersistence resulting in fibrotic changes. The critical deposition amount which induced the higher biopersistence was estimated to lie between 1.5 mg and 2.4 mg. In order to find the exact amount, t...

Lung inflammation is a key response to increased levels of particulate air pollution (PM); however, the cellular mechanisms leading to this response are poorly understood. To determine whether oxidants are implicated in PM-dependent lung inflammation, we tested the ability of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) to prevent lung inflammation in a rat model of short-term exposure to concentrated ambient partic...

Current therapies for asthma focus on reducing the frequency and severity of exacerbations by attenuating bronchiole inflammation and airway hyperreactivity. The limited efficacy of treatments, such as inhaled corticosteroids, to reduce the inflammatory response in some chronic asthmatics illustrates the need for further research into mechanisms underlying the pathophysiology of asthma1–3. Thre...

Chronic respiratory disease (CRD) is usually understood to include chronic bronchitis, emphysema, asthma, and a number of other chronic bronchopulmonary diseases. This paper will concentrate on the first two. The epidemiology of asthma differs in many ways from that of chronic bronchitis and emphysema, for example, in its age and sex incidence, relationships to social class, allergy, and time t...

*Corresponding author email: [email protected] Cell-based therapy has great potential as an alternative modern treatment for patients with lung diseases. Cellular engraftment hinders the therapeutic benefit of stem cell-based therapies in which infusion of stem cells in the lung has been found not to necessarily being attributed to tissue regeneration. Safety of the stem cell therapies inc...

BACKGROUND Emphysema is currently defined as "a condition of the lung characterised by abnormal, permanent enlargement of the airspaces distal to the terminal bronchiole, accompanied by destruction of their walls, and without obvious fibrosis." The functional and morphological changes that occur in emphysema have largely been attributed to changes in alveolar elastin rather than in collagen. A ...

Previous studies suggest that while lung angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) activity is reduced during chronic hypoxia, inhibitors of ACE attenuate hypoxic pulmonary hypertension. In an attempt to explain this paradox we investigated the possibility that whole lung ACE activity may not reflect local pulmonary vascular ACE expression. The experimental approach combined in vivo hemodynamic studi...

Probably no other diagnosis related to pulmonary disease has been abused as much as that of atelectasis. It is constantly being made where opacities are seen in roentgenograms of the chest in such situations as post-anesthetic states, barbiturate narcosis, chest wall injuries, prolonged rest in the supine position, poliomyelitis, bronchial asthma, pulmonary infections with retention of thick, t...