[Lesions of the lungs in children with acute leukemia]

Investigation of the lungs of 65 children who died of acute leukemia, revealed pathological alterations in 39 of them. Specific leukemic infiltration of the lung parenchyma was found in 29.3%, but it did not play an important role in tanathogenesis. Pneumonias were diagnosed in 46.1% of the observations being the main cause of death in 23%. The inflammatory processes showed a marked tendency for spread because of low immunologic responsiveness of the patients and poor neutrophil reaction. Because of this, segmental pneumonias predominated in our observations, and in 5 cases total bilateral interstitial pneumonias had developed. Three of them were due to Pneumocystis carinii and two were drug pulmonitis.