It has been reported that artificial ventilation causes significant elevation of elastic recoil and similar changes have also been reported in vivo. However, several investigators reported no remarkable changes in pressure-volume (P-V) curves after artificial ventilation.
In our present study, 5 rabbits were ventilated as controls and 20 rabbits were ventilated with a tidal volume of 60-70% TLC for 3 hours with an end-expiratory pressure (EEP) of 0cmH₂O (EEP: 0, 10 cases) and with EEP: 2cmH₂O (10 cases). After ventilation, arterial blood was obtained and the lungs were excised following exsanguination and P-V curves were recorded by means of a body plethysmograph with air. Then saline P-V curves were recorded with 2 control lungs and 3 lungs of each ventilated group. Others were used for the measurement of the wet and dry weight ratio.
Ventilated lungs with EEP: 0cmH₂O showed significantly higher elastic recoil with air than controls and ventilated lungs with EEP: 2cmH₂O. Ventilated lungs with EEP: 2cmH₂O also showed higher elastic recoil with air than controls but the difference was not significant statistically. Saline P-V curves showed no remarkable differences in each group. The Wet/Dry ratio was significantly elevated in ventilated lungs with EEP: 0cmH₂O in comparison with those of controls and ventilated lungs with EEP: 2cmH₂O.
These results indicated that the artificial ventilation performed at low lung volume with large tidal volume may cause the alteration in surface forces, which may partially be due to edema formation in the lung.

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To obtain an experimental model of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and its early changes (fibrosing alveolitis), lung injuries were produced in rats with repeated injections of paraquat. Most of the animals died in a few days after single intraperitoneal injection of a moderate amount (more than 20mg per kg of body weight) of paraquat. Pathologic findings in the lungs were hemorrhagic pulmonary edema. However, with reduced amounts of paraquat (5 or 10mg per kg) most of the animals survived. In some of the animals with repeated injections of paraquat, moderate interstitial pneumonia developed. In addition, repeated injections (twelve times, every ten days) produced typical interstitial pneumonia in 30.7 or 36 percent of the animals with intraperitoneal or subcutaneous injections of 10mg per kg, respectively.
These results reveal that paraquat-induced lung injury is an effective method to produce chronic interstitial pneumonia in rats. In the pathogenesis, repeated alveolar cell damage with interstitial edema of the alveoli was discussed as an important factor.

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An outbreak of pertussis occured over the past two years in Japan, and infection in adults as well as children has been noted. In adults, clinical recognition of this disease is difficult, because of the absence of typical clinical features. So the usefulness of the pertussis agglutination test for diagnosis was evaluated from the sera of 114 adults (66 healthy controls and 48 patients with persistent cough).
In the agglutination test two plus (++) has been usually used as the end titer in Japan. The range of titer for definite diagnosis of pertussis was statistically decided over 1:160 for B. pertussis serotype 1, 3; and 1:640 for serotype 1, 2. These levels are high compared with the data which was reported for children.
About half of the patients having persistent cough were diagnosed as pertussis from the agglutination test. In cases of adults, especially suffering from persistent cough at least for more than 2 weeks, pertussis should be taken into consideration and the agglutination test should be performed for definitive diagnosis.

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Twenty-two patients with chronic pulmonary disease were treated with three different expectorants for one week. Group A, consisted of 9 cases, received 100 ch, u. daily of α-Chmotrypsin buccule, administered in the oral cavity; Group B, comparised of 7 cases, received 24mg daily of Bromhexine hydrochloride, administered orally; Group C, comprised of 6 cases, received 30mg daily of Serratiopeptidase, also administered orally. The effects of the expectorants on sputum viscoelasticity in vivo were studied over frequencies from 10^-3 to 10° rad·sec^-1 using the Raised Cosine Pulse method. Results were as follows:
1) The symptoms of expectoration and/or coughing improved in about half of the cases in each group, and the differences among the groups were not pronounced.
2) In Group B, the absolute values of G′ (storage modulus) and G′′ (loss modulus) in 5 cases (71%) decreased over all studied frequencies after the treatment. On the other hand, no clear change, as a group, was found in the absolute values of G′ and G″ from the cases in Group A and C.
3) The peak of G″, which indicated a relaxation region, became more distinct after treatment than before in 7 cases (78%) of Group A and 3 cases (50%) of Group C. On the other hand, in Group B, this change of the peak of G″ was seen in only one case (17%). Moreover, the incidence of the change of the peak of G″ in Group A was significantly different from that in Group B (p<0.01, Chi-square test).

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Crackles were recorded from six patients, four with tuberculosis and two with chronic bronchitis. By waveform analysis we observed initial “high-pitched segments” with characteristics of shock waves and subsequent “low-pitched segments” with characteristics of damped sinusoids. We speculate that the initial segment represents a shock wave caused by an abrupt opening of the airway (Forgacs) and that the latter segment is a damped sinusoid caused by this shock wave exciting a resonator in the lung. The resonant frequency and the quality factor of this resonator were about 200Hz and 3-6 respectively, and both are supposedly determined by the geometry and the acoustic characteristics of the lung. To test our hypothesis, we experimentally excited a resonator with a shock wave and were successful in obtaining waveforms similar to those of crackles.

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Sera of 53 asymptomatic budgerigar breeders were studied for detecting precipitins and antibodies by radioimmunoassay against budgerigar serum antigen. The results were as follows:
1. Sixty percent of asymptomatic breeders and 30 percent of non-breeders showed positive precipitation reaction.
2. There was a discrepancy between the results of precipitation reaction and the presence of IgG anti-bodies measured by radioimmunoassay. Some subjects without precipitins had IgG antibodies and some subjects with precipitins had no IgG antibodies in serum.
3. IgG, IgA and, IgM antibodies were detected in 38%, 19% and 8% of asymptomatic breeders. IgE antibodies were not detected in any breeders. IgG antibodies were not detected in non-breeders.
4. The titer of IgG antibodies correlated with the numbers of budgerigars kept.
5. Much higher titers of IgG, A and, M antibodies were detected in a symptomatic breeder than asymptom atic breeders.

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A biopsy case of eosinophilic granuloma of the lung was studied by light and electron microscopy with special reference to so-called ‘histocytic cells’.
The patient was a 29 year-old man with a chief complaint of dry cough for the last ten months and who showed clubbing fingers and diffuse reticular shadow on his chest X-ray film.
The specimen obtained on thoracotomy revealed multiple granulomatous lesions growing in the peribronchiolar and peripheral air way walls. They consisted of large histiocytic cells with various degree of eosinophilic infiltration and fibrous connective tissue.
Electronmicroscopically, the histiocytic cell characterized with so-called Langerhans cell granules contained well developed Golgi apparatus with attended lysosomal cytosomes without pagolysosomal structures and somewhat developed r-ERs tending to dilate and contain a flocculated material, as far as ones seen in an active fibroblast. Furthermore, it was noted that collagenous bundles with microfibrils were intimately related to the cell membrane of Histiocytic cells without close relationship to ordinary fibroblast.
Histiocytic cells of EG of the lung might be of a special state of a mesenchymal cell different from an ordinary- described histiocytes and might participate in fibrogenesis.

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A case of primary pulmonary zygomycosis is reported. This 52-year-old man was asymptomatic, and a mass in his right hilum was first detected by annual chest roentgen survey. The mass measured 4.5×4.5cm on the standard P-A film, and was accompanied with notches and radiating spicules. Lateral tomogram and bronchogram suggested a subsegmental obstruction of the right B³, but fiberoptic bronchoscopy revealed irregular narrowing of the bronchus without any tumor.
Thoracotomy was performed under a diagnosis of cancer of the lung, and revealed a whitish hard nodule in the right upper lobe. Histologically, the nodule was a conglomerate of granulomas, each of which was made up of the epithelioid and foreign body giant cells, surrounding fungi concentrically. The fungi were identified with zygomycetes (so-called mucor) by morphologic features and immunofluorescence microscopic examination.
The unusual point of this case is the primary mucor infection presenting as a tumor-like shadow in chest X-ray film.

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