Revue des maladies respiratoires
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The term "obstructive bronchiolitis" used in this review covers different clinicopathological aspects. On the one hand, it refers to "small airways disease", where bronchiolar narrowings are widespread, secondary to post inflammatory fibrotic changes linked to tobacco smoke or fibrogenic dust inhalation. These obstructive changes at the level of small airways are responsible for a fixed airflow limitation. ⋯ A special emphasis is put on idiopathic bronchiolitis obliterans associated with organizing pneumonia. Some clinicopathologic correlations are of basic interest in relation to etiological factors: bronchiolitis obliterans due to viral infection in children involving mainly membranous bronchioles; by contrast, bronchiolitis obliterans related to other causes seems to extend further down from the terminal bronchioles to the respiratory bronchioles. Lymphoid bronchiolitis appears non specific and is mostly observed in association with systemic connective tissue diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis.
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This study has compared a daily 6-month short-course chemotherapy regimen and a daily 12-month standard duration regimen in the treatment of smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis in a rural area of Algeria where the population contains a relatively high proportion of nomads. The 6-month regimen (6M) was isoniazid and rifampicin throughout with ethambutol and pyrazinamide in addition for the first 2 months, and the 12-month regimen (12M) was isoniazid and ethambutol supplemented by streptomycin during the first month. All the 601 patients admitted had one or more sputum smears positive on examination in the local laboratory and 70% had a positive culture in the reference laboratory in Algiers. ⋯ A further 23 6M and 22 12M patients were known to have died, 11 in each series probably or definitely from tuberculosis. The remaining 28 6M and 34 12M patients were lost from follow-up, but 24 and 22 respectively had completed their allocated chemotherapy before defaulting. It was estimated that, overall, 272 (94%) of the 6M and 263 (91%) of the 12M patients had a favourable status at 3 years.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)