PULMONARY CHANGES IN UREMIA

Abstract

Alterations occurring in the lung associated with uremia have received attention only in recent years. A search of the literature reveals references to 34 cases. Ehrich and McIntosh, in 1932, studied the lung changes in three patients who died of Bright's disease.¹ Subsequent reports described the chest roentgenograms of the lung in patients with uremia.² The features of this condition were characteristically those of increased densities, confined predominantly to the hilar areas of the lungs in a bilateral symmetrical fashion, with clear basal and peripheral zones. This picture was described principally by roentgenologists, who considered the condition a form of pulmonary or "uremic" edema. The picture was sometimes seen in hypertensive patients in whom heart failure developed during the course of uremia. Pulmonary densities were often associated with early death. Recovery occasionally followed alleviation of both heart failure and the azotemic state. There have been few histopathological studies