The authors present an account of the preoperative cardiopulmonary examination and on postoperative changes in 77 patients with bronchogenic cancer subjected to radical surgical treatment. Twenty-three of them were older than 65 years. The results of ventilation tests do not differ significantly from those in younger patients; the older patients show only a tendency to higher residual volume and a less favourable ratio between alveolar and total ventilation than younger individuals. In the blood gases and hemodynamic values no significant differences were revealed. The mortality during the initial postoperative period and within six months after operation is not higher in patients over 65 years that in the other groups. The postoperative changes are approximately equal in all age groups. In the older patients only the mean pressure in the right atrium and in pulmonary artery as well as the total pulmonary resistance rise more than in younger cases. No case of respiratory acidosis or right heart failure was recorded.The authors conclude that the age of the patients is not decisive for the indication of radical surgical therapy of bronchogenic cancer and only the preoperative assessement of cardiopulmonary function is important, whereby in older age groups an approximately equal development of postoperative functional changes as in younger groups may be expected.Relative contraindications of more extensive lung resections for bronchogenic cancer include also the advanced age of the patients. The conception of advanced age is, however, usually not specified; the majority of authors agree that the decisive criterion for surgical therapy is the cardiopulmonary function and not advanced age alone. Nevertheless, many authors are rather reserved concerning indication in patients 60-70 years of age.

1. We have examined the effects of aminophylline on the respiration and pulmonary circulation of eleven patients with chronic bronchitis and six patients with peripheral bronchial carcinoma; the latter were free from bronchial obstruction at the time of study.2. Aminophylline caused an increase in total and alveolar ventilation and a decrease in arterial carbon dioxide tension. Lung diffusing capacity was unaltered in subjects with marked respiratory insufficiency but increased slightly in an additional group of less severely affected patients, and in the control subjects.3. Mean pulmonary arterial pressure decreased significantly in the patients with chronic bronchitis but not those with lung cancer. A positive correlation was observed between the level of pulmonary arterial pressure during the control period and the decrease after aminophylline. 4.For the group as a whole there was no significant change in cardiac output or arterial oxygen saturation or tension. However, in those subjects in whom the cardiac output was increased, the arterial blood oxygen was reduced despite an increase in alveolar ventilation. The data are interpreted as evidence for a disproportionate part of the increase in cardiac output being directed to poorly ventilated areas of the lung.Aminophylline is commonly used in the treatment of chronic obstructive bronchitis and its effects on respiration are well documented. However, there is as yet no good explanation for the occurrence of hypoxaemia in some patients but not in others. With a view to elucidating the mechanism we have investigated the effects of aminophylline on the respiration and pulmonary circulation of patients with chronic obstructive broncho-pulmonary disease and in control subjects.A total of seventeen subjects were examined in detail. Eleven of them suffered from chronic bronchitis with respiratory insufficiency. Additional subjects with bronchitis were used for 549 METHODS A N D SUBJECTS

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