Pulmonary function's archives

There were no differences in the quality of immu-nostaining in the sections of the biopsy specimens taken with the three types of biopsy forceps. However, the possibilities to count reproducible cell numbers were best in biopsy specimens taken with the FB-21C, being largely due to the presence of more intact submucosa. An important finding is […]

Mucosal biopsy specimens were immediately transported to the laboratory on a slide in a humidified, ice-cooled container, and subsequently embedded (in TissueTek; Sakura Finetek USA; Torrance, Calif) and snap-frozen by immersing in precooled isopentane at —80°C. Sections were cut at 4 μm and stored at —80°C until use. To evaluate the morphologic architecture of the […]

Quantity and Morphology of Bronchial Biopsy Specimens Taken by Forceps of Three Sizes Fiberoptic bronchoscopy is at present a routine diagnostic procedure in pulmonary diseases. In recent years, this procedure has been introduced in the research of pathophysiologic mechanisms of bronchial asthma. It appears to be a safe procedure, even in patients with bronchial obstructive […]

Mortality in this study is low. This is partly explained by the design of the study: the fact that only patients with a duration of mechanical ventilation exceeding four days were included eliminates early mortality. Even taking this into account, mortality in the control groups still seems low considering the high incidence of LRTI. This […]

Intubation and sedation are the principal factors in aspiration of oropharyngeal and gastric contents, because they interfere with the normal clearing mechanisms of the trachea. It should be stressed that the tube cuff does not protect against microaspiration: small quantities of oropharyngeal secretion frequently pass the cuff, especially if high-volume cuffed tubes are used.

The design of our study does not permit determination of whether the reduced colonization and infection rates were caused by topical antibiotics, parenteral cefotaxime, or the combination of the two. However, the prevention of microbial colonization of oropharynx and stomach in group 3 patients lasted long after parenteral cefotaxime therapy was discontinued, and seems to […]

However, the effect of cefotaxime, polymyxin E, and norfloxacin on the protective anaerobic flora had not been well studied in man at the start of our investigation. It has been shown recently that cefotaxime does disturb the protective indigenous flora in man. Nevertheless, our regimen proved effective, probably because colonization and infection with resistant Gram-negative […]