Abstract
Changes in bronchial tone in the anaphylactic guinea pig and in the unsensitized animal after the injection of bronchoconstrictor drugs have been successfully studied by 2 methods: (1) the perfusion of the isolated lung, 1 , 2 and (2) the direct visualization of the bronchial tree by celloidin casts of the respiratory tract. The latter method, described by Hanzlik, 3 affords structural information of value not elicited by the physiologic technic and has the advantage of producing permanent casts for study and demonstration. The stereo X-ray technic presented in this paper has many of the advantages of this method, besides the additional one of greater simplicity and refinement and of giving a detail of finer structure of the bronchi, bronchioles, and pulmonary alveoli under normal and pathologic conditions not heretofore obtainable.
Method. The composition of the injection mass was a modification of that employed by Hill 4 for studies on the vascular system. For our work, we found a 12% bismuth oxychloride (Merck) suspended in a 20% solution of acacia the most satisfactory. This represents an approximate reversal of the percentages used by Hill, these being better suited for visualizing the respiratory tract. The acacia serves as an agent to aggregate the finely divided particles of bismuth, which fills the trachea, larger bronchi, bronchioles and alveoli and yet remains confined under the visceral covering of the lung.
The mixture was strained through cheese cloth into a widemouthed bottle into which was fitted and tightly fixed a rubber stopper with 2 holes. A long glass tube reaching to the bottom of the bottle was inserted into one hole and connected by a piece of rubber tubing to a short glass cannula for insertion into the trachea.
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