[Functional-morphological changes in the lungs in bronchial asthma]

Histological and immunohistochemical studies of 57 bioptic specimens of the mucosa of the main bronchi taken during an attack of bronchial asthma, and those of the lungs of 27 patients who had died on the attack, showed that in the course of the attack of bronchial asthma serous-desquamous allergic inflammation, which proceeded according to the type of hypersensitivity, of the immediate type, developed along the full length of the broncho-vascular barrier. It occurred under the effect of biologically active substances liberated in the reaction of the antigen with IgE. Immunochemically, there was detected luminescence of IgE on the basal membranes of the mucous glands, on the basal membranes of the mucosa, as well as in lymphoid, plasmic, and mast cells infiltrating the mucosa. In allergic inflammation in the bronchi there were noted drastic delatation and increased permeability of vessels of the microcirculatory bed, odema, migration of eosinophils, the mast-cell reaction with degranulation of mast cells, spasm of musculature, elevated permeability of the basal membrane, impregnation of the latter with plasmic protein with fibrin, hypersecretion and desquamation of the epithelium, hypersecretion of mucous glands. As a result of the inflammatory changes in the bronchial system disorders of the drainage function of the bronchi with obstruction of their lumens which were most pronounced in small bronchi and bronchioles, developed.