RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PIGMENT DEPOSITS AND LESIONS IN NORMAL AND CENTRILOBULAR EMPHYSEMATOUS LUNGS

Abstract

The present study of 30 excised lungs, fixed and dried in full inflation, was designed to clarify the relationship between pigment deposits and the lesions of centrilobular emphysema. Quantitative enumeration of areas containing normal lung, pigment without lesion, lesion without pigment, and pigment with lesion was carried out. The results were reported in percentages of square centimeters in each category and in total numbers of square centimeters calculated in proportion to the total lung volumes. The data show that the majority of lesions are pig-mented, confirming the impression that some association does exist between lesions and pigment deposits. The key observation is that, in lungs with increasingly severe centrilobular emphysema, there are increasing numbers of unpigmented lesions, indicating that lesions develop in the absence of pigment and that the association between them is the result of pigment deposition in lesions after formation.