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Query: UMLS:C0010200 (cough)
 23,843 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Several disorders of the thoracic cage are known to cause respiratory failure, by means of relatively simple mechanisms, such as the increased work of breathing, which results in alveolar hypoventilation. A variety of pathogenic mechanisms may be considered, as functions of the types of thoracic disorders present. As causes of these additional potential mechanisms, we considered the following: 1) ventilation-perfusion (V/Q) inhomogeneity; 2) inability to cough; 3) malformation or acquired defect of the respiratory centres; and 4) excess blood volume and fluid retention, which aggravate work of breathing and V/Q inhomogeneity. All of these disorders can be grouped into two major categories (which nevertheless have some of the pathophysiology in common): the mechanical syndrome and the neuromuscular or paralytic syndrome. In this paper we discuss chest wall diseases falling into the first category; namely, kyphoscoliosis, fibrothorax, thoracoplasty, ankylosing spondylitis and obesity-hypoventilation. Congenital deformities of the thoracic cage, which do not have important effects on ventilatory apparatus (e.g. pectus excavatum and pectus carinatum), were also considered.
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PMID:Classification of chest wall diseases. 847 68

Diffuse pulmonary ossification is a rare entity that presents with the formation of mature bone in the pulmonary parenchyma and is associated with diffuse and chronic lung disease, heart disease, or other system disorders. Diffuse pulmonary ossification is usually a postmortem finding by the pathologist. In the case we report, the diagnosis was established by open lung biopsy. The patient was a 79-year-old man with dyspnea, dry cough, and weight loss. He had been a smoker. A chest x-ray revealed reticulonodular bilateral pulmonary infiltrates. Computed tomography revealed interstitial disease predominantly in the septum with multiple cavitations that tended to form honeycomb patterns. Pleural thickening, retraction of the parenchyma, and bilateral fibrosis were also visible. A clinical diagnosis of interstitial fibrosis was established and the patient s course was unfavorable. An open lung biopsy was performed. The lung tissue specimens revealed zones with collapsed alveoli and others with emphysema, some of which produced secretion and erythrocytic extravasation. Interstitial vascular congestion was apparent; bronchioles presented mononuclear and some polymorphonuclear inflammatory infiltrates. Noteworthy was the presence of predominantly interstitial, multicentric foci of osseous trabeculae --some of which included adipose bone marrow. Diffuse pulmonary ossification is usually an incidental finding in autopsies of patients with a history of diffuse chronic pulmonary disease, but it is an unusual diagnosis in living patients. Diffuse pulmonary ossification is of no prognostic significance in pulmonary fibrosis. It is a marker of the chronicity and/or severity of the fibrosis.
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PMID:[Diffuse pulmonary ossification associated with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis]. 1557 74