THROMBOEMBOLIC PULMONARY VASCULAR SCLEROSIS

Abstract

THE COMBINATION of widespread sclerosis of the pulmonary arterial tree and cardiopulmonary failure has been the source of repeated discussions during the past 60 years.¹ Brenner's extensive reviews^1e have served to emphasize the complexities of this combination. Particularly enigmatic has been the pathogenesis of primary pulmonary vascular sclerosis. In the present communication we wish to record two additional cases displaying widespread thrombotic or embolic masses within small pulmonary arteries and pulmonary vascular sclerosis of a sufficient magnitude to effect cardiopulmonary failure (Ayerza's syndrome). Human cases of this type, which have been periodically recorded, merely indicate the association of thrombi or emboli and the vascular lesions. The experimental intravenous injection of small embolic masses, on the other hand, by evoking a similar vascular sclerosis indicates a cause and effect in this relationship. In a separate report² the experimental production of pulmonary vascular sclerosis in the rabbit by means of embolie masses