Revue des maladies respiratoires
-
Recent studies have shown that normal bronchial secretion composed of proteoglycans, atypical glycoproteins and neutral lipids neither includes mucins nor glycolipids, nor phospholipids. The rheological characteristics of bronchial mucus thus depend on mucociliary clearance and clearance of bronchial secretions by cough, which in turn depend on the properties of the glycoprotein acids secreted and on the degree of their entanglement which is linked to their water content and on the chemical bonds with other protein or lipid components which are present in the secretions. ⋯ In certain conditions mucus plugs can form. An understanding of the pathology of bronchial mucus in the adult enables one to choose the best therapeutic prescriptions but the efficacy of measurements available remains imperfect.
-
Review Comparative Study
[Passive smoking and respiratory diseases. Current data].
Smoking is now unanimously recognised as a pathological factor and a major carcinogen. It is estimated that it is responsible for around 10% of the overall mortality in France or more than 50,000 deaths per year and in the United States for around 15% of the overall mortality or 300,000 deaths per year. There has been recent evidence that the risk linked to the inhalation of tobacco smoke does not appear only in active smokers, but also in all subjects who are involuntarily exposed to tobacco smoke. ⋯ In adults the effect of involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke seems above all to be carcinogenic. It is estimated that there is a 25% increase in the risk of bronchial cancer in a non smoker married to a smoker when compared to the risk observed in a non exposed non smoker. Thus the disastrous effect of smoking appears without any threshold.
-
The thoracic localization of endometriosis may involve the pulmonary pleura and the diaphragm, or the bronchopulmonary parenchyma, according to mechanisms which appear to be quite different. The principal clinical manifestations express themselves depending on their localization, a pneumothorax in the first case and hemoptysis in the second. ⋯ The current methods of visualization of the pleura enable a macroscopic diagnosis to occur in the former cases in 64% and the body scanner now localizes the second in all cases. Treatment by Danatrol is often strikingly effective in a few months, notably in the cases with parenchymal localization.