[The morphofunctional changes in the air-blood barrier in hypostatic pneumonia]

An autopsy lung tissue was studied from former patients with hypostatic pneumonia following stroke. Two groups of patients were identified among the decreased: those having died within 4-24 hours after stroke (group I); those having died by day 4-6 after stroke (group II). The control was lung tissue from those persons having been killed in road-motoring accidents. General morphologic methods of investigation were employed together with a special method of immunofluorescent investigation according to Coon [correction of Kuns], using monospecific antibodies labelled with fluorescence isothiocyanate directed against heavy polypeptides of human immunoglobulins. The findings collected showed a significant increase in permeability of the constituent components of the blood-air barrier for native autogenous immunoglobulins recordable before the leucocytes' outgo into the alveolar cavities. The protective alterations are heterogeneous, varying with a section of focal pneumonia, their degree being related to the time spans during which the pathological process evolves. Under above conditions the bronchial barrier is acknowledged to be more stable since its permeability is not much changeable regardless of the stage of the illness.