Clinical and Physiological Considerations in Pulmonary Muscular Hyperplasia

THE PRESENCE of increased amounts of smooth muscle in the lung is not rare, in itself. In most instances, however, local-ized areas of smooth muscle hyperplasia have been described, associated with areas of chronic infection. It has been reported in bronchiectasis, abscess formation, syphil-itic pneumonitis, tuberculosis, and pneu-monitis (1). The occurrence of a general-ized form of smooth muscle hyperplasia disseminated throughout the lungs is un-common. Although first described by Von Buhl (2) in 1872 as muscular cirrhosis of the lung, approximately 25 cases have ap-peared in the literature since then. These cases have appeared under a variety o