|
Progressive Systemic Sclerosis
To evaluate angiogenesis and vascular distribution in the pulmonary interstitium in patients with interstitial lung disease, Renzoni and coworkers
obtained open lung biopsies from 8 patients with IPF, 9 patients with IPF associated with systemic sclerosis, and 12 patients with normal lung tissue (the patients had lung cancer). Vascular density was less in the patients with IPF associated with systemic sclerosis (3.9%) and in patients with IPF (4.5%) than in the control samples (20.4%). The percentage of tissue occupied by vessels decreased with increasing distance from the alveoli in the control samples, but not in the samples from the two patient groups. Indices of endothelial cell proliferation were increased in the patients with IPF associated with systemic sclerosis but not in the patients with IPF. The authors conclude that net vascular ablation and redistribution of blood vessels is found in areas of interstitial thickening in patients with IPF alone and in patients with IPF associated with systemic sclerosis, and the change may contribute to the impairment of gas exchange.
1 Citation displayed.
Interstitial Vascularity in Fibrosing Alveolitis
- Elisabetta A. Renzoni, David A. Walsh, Michael Salmon, Athol U. Wells, Piersante Sestini, Andrew G. Nicholson, Srihari Veeraraghavan, Anne E. Bishop, Hanna M. Romanska, Panagiotis Pantelidis, Carol M. Black, and Roland M. du Bois
Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. 167: 438 -443. First published online as doi:10.1164/rccm.200202-135OC
[Abstract]
[Full text]
|
|
