A CLINICOPATHOLOGIC STUDY OF BRONCHIAL ASTHMA WITH CONSIDERATION OF ITS RELATIONSHIP TO THE "GENERAL ADAPTATION SYNDROME"

Abstract

Of 46 patients studied, 13 died during an attack of bronchial asthma. Bronchial, pulmonary, cardiac, hepatic, lymphoid and adrenal changes are descr. and discussed. The lymphoid and adrenal changes are suggestive of the changes descr. in animals as occurring in the "alarm reaction." 16 patients died because of frequently associated diseases, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, bronchopneumonia, pulmonary fibrosis and cor pulmonale. In the remaining cases, where death was due to intercurrent disease, no pathognomonic anatomic findings of bronchial asthma were found, although emphysema was present in the majority and chronic bronchitis in 50%. However, among the intercurrent diseases were diseases said by some to be "diseases of adaptation," viz., periarteritis nodosa, rheumatic heart disease and glomerulonephritis. The coexistence of these diseases with bronchial asthma, in the light of the morphologic evidence suggestive of the "alarm reaction," is of interest.