Abstract

Observation on bronchial gland hypertrophy of draining bronchus in pulmonary tuberculous lesions were made on 32 male and 6 female lobectomied cases. Ages of the cases ranged from 21 to 53 years. Three sections were taken from the definite sites of the draining bronchus of each case for this study, and the mucous gland thickness, in millimeters, and the Reid index were calculated from these mean values. The general mean values for the Reid index were 0.486(0.483 in male and 0.506 in female) and for the mucous gland thickness were 0.241mm(0.238mm in male and 0.255mm in female). Mucous gland hypertrophy was observed most frequently in cases with complete encapsulated lesion of tuberculoma in lung(mean Reid index, 0.648) and next was with non-cavitary caseous lesion of lung in orders. In the drained bronchus, the mucous gland hypertrophy appear to be more vulnerable to bronchial lesion of multiple tubercles forming bronchitis with ulceration and squamous cell metaplasia.