Abstract
Summary
The gross and histological changes in the lungs of rats injected with triolein are similar to those seen in the lungs of patients dying with fat embolism. An elevation of the serum lipase activity in patients with fractures is diagnostic of pulmonary fat embolism(6). The result of this experiment indicates that there is an increase in the amount of lipase activity in the lung in experimental fat embolsim in rats, and emphasizes the role of enzymatic breakdown in the removal of embolic fat from the lung. It also suggests that the source of the excess lipase in the serum may be the lung.
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