Much remains still unknown of chronic bronchitis, among which included is its definition. In view of this fact and in order to attain and integrated comprehension of the entity of the disease, the bronchoscopic findings, histologic findings of biopsied bronchial mucosa, and electric resistance of bronchial mucosa (BER) were comparatively studied.
Of 54 clinical cases of various bronchial diseases, 23 were cases of chronic bronchitis. 47 dogs under several experimental conditions were further subjected to biopsy and BER determination on the medial wall of the right main bronchus.
In studying chronic bronchitis, several classifications were attempted, i. e., a symptomatic classification (10 cases as Type A, 7 as Type B, 6 as Type C), a morphologic classification (based on the longitudinal mucosal corrugations: 6 cases as Type I, 14 as Type II, 3 as Type III; and based on the mucosal swelling: 3 cases as Type a, 9 as Type b, 8 as Type c, 3 as Type d), and a histologic classification based on the intensity of the pathologic changes of biopsy specimens (-) to (+++).
The results obtained were as follows:
1) Type A was composed chiefly of hypertrophic cases (II), and partly of mixed (II-a) and atrophic (III-d) cases. Type B was seen chiefly in cases with swollen lesion (II-c) and those with hypertrophic and swollen lesion (II-b).
The general findings such as bronchial secretion, mucous duct dilatation, circular mucosal corrugation, and nodular protrusion and concaving of the mucosa were, on the whole, more accentuated than in other bronchial diseases.
2) In Type A, thickning of epithelium, goblet cell proliferation, squamous metaplasia, basal cell proliferation in the mucoepithelium, thickening of the basement membrane and submucosal edema, hyperplasia and dilatation of capillary, hyperplasia of elastic fibers in the submucosal tissue were relatively remarkable. In Type B, those findings were similar to Type A, through the histologic changes were somewhat slighter. In Type C, submucosal cell infilt ration and edema were exaggerated while other findings were quite unremarkable.
3) BER for chronic bronchitis was the lowest in all cases with bronchial diseases studied, the order being chronic bronchitis<acute bronchitis<bronchiectasis<bronchial asthma<normal control. As arranged with regard to the symptomatic types, BER for chronic bronchitis was lower in the order of: Type A<Type B<Type C; with regard to the bronchoscopic findings: it was Type II<TypeI<Type III. As to the histologic findings of biopsy specimens, BER tended to get lower according to the intensity of the goblet cell proliferation, submucosal cell infiltration and edema, and mucous gland proliferation and dilatation.
In experimental study, it was found that BER in dogs was lowered under the any experimental condition studied.
4) It was demonstrated a certain correlation between the bronchoscopic findings and the pathohistologic changes in the bronchial mucosa in chronic bronchitis. BER and the histologic findings were closely correlated.

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Relationship between the dust environment and status of radiographically detected cases of pulmonary asbestosis in a certain asbestos-using factory was followed up, and the rate of radiographic case-finding at the stage when the dust environment was poor was compared with the rate at the stage when the environment was improved. The measures taken to improve the dust environment were found effective. The dust environment in the factory in 1952 was very poor such as the average dust concentration was 17.0mg/m³.
It was advised to improve the dust environment during and after 1957. Since then the environment has been improved. The average dust concentration was 0.26mg/m³ in 1972 and was far below the maxium permissible level. During 1955 and 1959, prevalence of pulmonary asbestosis was as high as 21.1% but in 1972 it was markedly decreased to 6.2%. Namely, at the stage when the dust environment was improved, the prevalence of pulmonary asbestosis was apparently low. It is natural that a reduction in dust concentration is the only means to prevent the incidence of pulmonary asbestosis.
There are only few studies published on the survey of this kind, so the findings in the factory are presented herein as data obtained by such a survey. It is planned that further efforts will be invested in improving the dust environment, and the correlation with dust environment to the prevalence of pulmonary asbestosis be observed.

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The incidence of asbestos bodies in the lungs was investigated (on at random selected) 207 autopsies of patients over 30 years of age. None of the patients had been proved exposure to asbestos, and all of them were residents in Osaka city and its immediate suburbs at the time of death. The materials were prepared from the lower lobes of the formalin-fixed left lungs. To search for asbestos bodies, chemical digestion of the lung tissue was used. After digestion, the residue was separated by centrifugation in an alcohol-chloroform solution. The sediment was then filtered through Millipore filters. With this method, asbestos bodies were found in 164 out of 207 autopsied cases.
The incidence of positive cases increased gradually in the cases who had died in the latter years of this study, and it seemed also to increase slightly with age. It is likely that the incidence of positive cases from industrialized areas is higher than that from non-industrialized one. In the future, the incidence of asbestos bodies in human lungs will be one of the indexes of air pollution. There seems to be no apparent correlation between bronchogenic carcinoma, other malignant diseses, non-malignant diseases and the abundance of asbestoos bodies.

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Pulmonary involvement in tuberous sclerosis is rare.
A 30 year old woman whose two sons has seizures and adenoma cebaceum was affected in multiple organs including the skin, brain, eyes, bones, kidneys and lungs and was diagnosed as tuberosis sclerosis from the typical clinical and roentgenographic features. The onset of respiratory complaints has appeared 5 years after the discovery of the chest X-ray abnormality.

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