ABSTRACT
Serum levels of alpha 1-antitrypsin were studied in 80 patients with chronic bronchitis. As a manifestation of the inflammatory response, nonsignificant increase was recorded compared to the group of healthy subjects. In discordance with literary data, no significant differences were found between bronchitics smokers and non-smokers. In 5 patients (6.2%), alpha 1-antitrypsin serum levels were below the lower limit of the reference range. The patients complained of cough, expectoration, and dyspnea. As a preventive measure, it is recommended to determine serum alpha 1-antitrypsin levels in smokers before they take up a job in a dusty environment and in bronchitics before inhalation treatment with proteolytic enzymes is administered. In alpha 1-antitrypsin deficit the value of substitution therapy in patients with emphysema is being emphasized.
Subject(s)
Bronchitis/blood , alpha 1-Antitrypsin/analysis , Chronic Disease , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Smoking/bloodABSTRACT
Scintigraphic examination of the lungs in sarcoidosis has been used as a supplement method of the functional examination. Perfusion scintigraphy enables to locate places with lowered regional perfusion in the form of spotted fall outs. In some cases of hilar lymphonodular forms of sarcoidosis we can already find some diffuse spotted fall outs of perfusion even if parenchymatous changes are still not visible. Up to now we have not seen any lobar or alar fall outs of radioactivity, as they can be found in central types of bronchogenic carcinoma. In sarcoidosis with micro- or macronodular X-ray shadows the scintigraphic defect in its extent sometimes does not correspond to these changes. On the basis of our material the mutual relation between scintigraphic pictures on one hand and blood gases on the other hand could not been neither confirmed nor eliminated.
