Alveolar edema

Electron microscopy has also shown that, in rats exposed to ozone at 3 ppm for 4 h and in mice exposed to 4 ppm for 3 h, acute inflammatoiy bronchiolar lesions occur. These concentrations were high enough to produce alveolar edema, and the observed changes were similar to those found in earlier studies that used standard histologic techniques. 

The pathophysiology of IR injury in the lung involves increased leakage from the pulmonary microvasculature leading to interstitial and alveolar edema, excessive infiltration of polymorphonuclear cells into the lung, tissue inflammation, and apoptosis (de Perrot et al. 2003). 

Inflammatory changes consisting of hyperemia and bronchitis were observed in the respiratory system of rabbits exposed to 4-6 mg/m (0.30-0.45 ppm) tributyltin chloride for 95 days (Gohlke et al. 1969). Histopathology, consisting of severe bronchitis and vascular and alveolar edema, was seen in rats exposed to 2 mg tin/m (0.41 ppm) as a mixture of tributyltin dibromide (0.39 ppm), dibutyltin bromide (0.02 ppm) and hydrocarbon impurities for 80 days (Iwamoto 1960). Since these were terminal histopathological evaluations only, it is not known whether the changes were reversible or would have produced functional impairment in the animals if exposure had continued. 

Examination of 500 exposed people within 3 days of the Bhopal disaster identified alveolar edema in 40% and... 

Egan, E. Lung inflation, lung solute permeability, and alveolar edema. J. Appl. Physiol. Respirat. Environ. Exercise Physiol. 1982, 53, 121-125. 

Pulmonary features of the adverse effects of aldesleukin include lung opacities, diffuse pulmonary interstitial edema, pleural effusions, alveolar edema, and hypoxemia, with full and rapid recovery after treatment withdrawal (29,30). 

Inhibits protein synthesis, causing systemic effects and local effects Airway inflammation, interstitial pneumonia, and perivascular and alveolar edema GI wall inflammation and cell death Muscle and local lymph node cell death... 

Heart failure causes Kerley s B lines (edema of interlobular septa), which appear as thin, horizontal reticular fines in the costophrenic angles. At higher pressures, alveolar edema and pleural effusions appear in the pleural space or as blunting of the costophrenic angles. Pericardial effusions also may appear as a large heart, but because it usually occurs rapidly, there is no evidence of pulmonary venous congestion. 

The normal diffusing capacity value for an adult at rest is about 25 ml/min-ute/mm Hg for CO. This value is reduced, however, when diffusion is impaired as a result of certain pathologic states that lengthen the barrier for diffusion (e.g., interstitial edema, alveolar edema, and fibrous tissue deposition) or decrease the area for diffusion (e.g., emphysema and nonventilated alveoli). 

Animal studies reveal that pulmonary edema and asphyxiation result from acute high-dose exposure to elemental mercury vapor (EPA 1997). After 2 hours of exposure to 30 mg m mercury vapor, 20 of 32 rats died. Histological lesions such as alveolar edema, hyaline membranes and sometimes fibrosis were observed (Livardjani et al. 1991). 

HEALTH SYMPTOMS inhalation (irritates respiratory system, cyanosis, alveolar edema, pneumonitis, severe headache, dizziness, nausea, unconsciousness) contact (skin bums, liquid may cause frostbite). 

Death. No deaths in humans specifically associated with plutonium have been reported following acute plutonium exposure. Epidemiological studies of occupational cohorts did not report any increases in deaths due to nonmalignant diseases. However, the highest radiation levels reported in workers were 100- to 1,000-fold lower than the radiation levels that resulted in death (due to respiratory failure) in some laboratory animals. Acute exposures to high levels of plutonium isotopes, administered as dioxides, citrate, or nitrates, were fatal to several laboratory species when exposure occurred by the inhalation, oral, or injection routes. Survival time was radiation dose-related for all of these routes of exposure. By the inhalation route in animals, nonmalignant respiratory disease was characterized by radiation pneumonitis, pulmonary fibrosis, alveolar edema, and occasionally hyperplasia and metaplasia with death occurring within weeks or months of the initial exposure to... 

Matthay MA, Wiener-Kronish JP. Intact epithelial barrier function is critical for the resolution of alveolar edema in humans. Am Rev Respir Dis 1990 142 1250-1257. 

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