Abstract

Ventilatory disturbances in CLE cannot be accounted for only by decrease of internal surface area. Indeed, in the majority of the cases studied the intact parenchyma accounted for 50 to 77% of the volume of the lungs and the internal alveolar surface area was only slightly reduced. These results, as previously stressed by Dunnill, are the reverse of the findings in severe PLE cases in which there is frequently minimal respiratory failure and right ventricular hypertrophy, although emphysema may destroy as much as 80% of the lung parenchyma, thus seriously reducing the internal ventilatory surface area.