Abstract

The definition of pulmonary emphysema is often anatomical. Therefore, pathologists have the best chance of correctly diagnosing emphysema. Observers interested in lung disease may have doubts about whether they take use of this chance, and Wyatt, Fischer, and Sweet (1961) dubbed the standard criteria (gross inspection and palpation of the lung and microscopically study of random sections) as "patho-logic chimeras." However, there have not been any investigations into the precision of the standard pathological diagnosis of emphysema, unlike those that have been done for its clinical and radiographic diagnosis.