No abstract

The CO transfer factor for the lung was measured, Key Words using the breath-holding technique, in 37 patients with moderate or severe chronic obstructive lung disease, classified as ‘bronchitis Chronic bronchitis chilis’, ‘emphysema’, or ‘intermediate’ disease. A highly significant decrease of transfer factor and transfer coefficient was found in patients with emphysema as compared with bronchitis. The correlation between both gas-transfer parameters and ‘emphysema score’ was significant. The theoretical and clinical aspects of diffusing capacity determinations in patients with chronic obstructive lung disease are discussed

The main aspects and consequences of tobacco use resulting from a series of field surveys in Romania are reviewed. The proportion of smokers in middle-aged adults is about 10 per cent for women and 40 to 50 per cent for men. Cigarettes are practically the only form of tobacco consumed--cigars are very rarely smoked and pipe-smoking accounts for less than 1 per cent of tobacco use. Less than 10 per cent of smokers use more than 25 cigarettes a day. Age at starting to smoke is low, with a quarter of smokers taking up the habit by the age of 15. Ninety per cent of the smokers admit to inhaling, and about half the men and nearly all the women smoke filter cigarettes.

In a group of 80 male patients (average age 52.5 years) with severe obstructive ventilatory impairment (FEV_{1 0} less than 40% of predicted) due to chronic bronchitis and/or emphysema, the blood carbon dioxide tension measured at rest, in a stable clinical status, was confronted to the spirometric variables and the oxygen tension. PaCO₂ (range 31–60 mm Hg) was loosely related to the VC (r = -0.28) and the FEV (r = -0.30, both p < 0.05) and strongly related to the PaO₂ (r = 0.60; p < 0.001). When patients were classified as bronchitic or emphysematous according to clinical, roentgenologic and biological criteria, the correlations above were found to be higher for bronchitics. In patients with chronic bronchitis with severe obstruction a very good estimation of PaCO₂ is possible from PaO₂: PaCO₂ = 75.8–0.44 PaO₂ (SEE 0.1 mm Hg).

No abstract