Abstract
In this review, some considerations were made on the relationship between bacterial infection and inflammation in the respiratory tract. At first, bacterial pneumonia was discussed comparing the experimental animal models and patients. The lag time was observed between the occurrence of inflammation and the bacterial growth in the lung, and also the inflammatory changes were prolonged after the bacterial clearance by the antibiotic treatment. The use of antiinflammatory drugs may be considered in combination with antibiotics.
Then, chronic bronchiolitis (equall to diffuse panbronchiolitis), which is considered to be representative of chronic respiratory tract infections, was described. The origin and clinical course of this disease were discussed from bacteriological, chemotherapeutical and pathological aspects, and it was shown that our quantitative sputum culture method and inflammatory cytology of sputum were extremely useful for the clinical study of these patients.
