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The serum levels of non-enzymatic antioxidants were studied in patients with chronic nonspecific lung diseases with first-to-third-degree dysplasia of the bronchial epithelium (BE) before and after therapeutic correction. The development of BE dysplastic changes was ascertained to cause a considerable reduction in the content of antioxidant vitamin A. During the therapy contributing to reversal of BE dysplastic alterations, there was an increase in the serum levels of vitamin A and uric acid in patients with simple chronic bronchitis with both first- and second-degree dysplasia. If no therapeutic effect occurred, the systemic level of the antioxidants remained unchanged.

Air pollution with toxic chemical near oil-processing and petrochemical enterprises is significantly higher than in administrative district of the city. The studies proved that level and share of mortality with malignancies of trachea, bronchi and lungs is higher in industrial district, than that in the administrative one. The standardized parameters of mortality among females were increased in the industrial district, especially in 70s and 80s, i.e. in 10-20 years after launching the plants. The industrial district was characterized by higher mortality at young age. The mortality with the studied cancers at age of 20-29 and 30-39 prevailed in the industrial district.

The results of interferon therapy of 32 children with severe forms of laryngeal, tracheal, and bronchial papillomatosis are very encouraging. Clinical recovery (no relapses during 3 years or longer) was observed in 8 patients, improvement (no relapses during less than 3 years or 2-3-fold prolongation of no-relapse periods) was seen in 12 patients, no changes were recorded in 10 children; data on 2 other patients were too limited or lacking at all. The efficacy of interferon therapy of airways papillomatosis can be further increased, if doses are selected on an individual basis.

The authors analyse experience in the examination and treatment of 69 patients with bronchoesophageal fistulas (33 males and 36 females aged from 13 to 66). The etiological factors, pathogenesis, and clinical symptomatology of bronchial fistulas are discussed. The modern methods for the diagnosis of this pathological condition are indicated, the main ones being radiological and endoscopic methods. The indications for radical and palliative operations in bronchoesophageal fistulas are determined and their techniques are described. The methods for the prevention of complications are discussed. The late-term results of nonoperative treatment and various types of operations were studied.

Ninety-eight patients underwent operation for stenosing diseases of the bifurcation of the trachea at the Department of Lung and Mediastinal Surgery of the National Research Center of Surgery (Moscow) from 1963 to 1990. There were 44 females and 54 males. Their ages ranged from 6 to 69, average age of 38.2 years. The indications for the operation were as follows: malignant tumours in 84, benign tumours in 7, post-tuberculosis+ cicatricial tracheobronchial stenosis in 6 patients, and branchiogenic cyst in one patient. Surgical interventions were carried out in 86 and only endoscopic operations in 12 patients. The variants of radical operations were: resection of the bifurcation of the trachea with removal of apart of or the whole lung (41); resection of the bifurcation of the trachea with preservation of both functioning lungs (17); resection of the bifurcation of the trachea with exclusion of the left lung from ventilation (17); decompression of the region of the bifurcation of the trachea (2). The immediate postoperative period was uneventful in 51 patients. Complications occurred in 47 patients, 30 of them died. Three-year survival was recorded in 53%, 5-year survival in 48%, and 10-year survival in 40.3% of cases.

Three cases of foreign bodies in the bronchi, aspiration of which has gone unnoticed for the patients, are considered. In view of great diagnostic difficulties of related inflammation in atelectasis-affected sites of the lungs encountered in such cases, the study of the disease history and bronchological examination seem essential and should be detailed and comprehensive. This is especially true in torpid and atypical course of pneumonia, signs of aspiration and bronchial obstruction.

Destructive, inflammatory, sclerotic, compensatory and adaptive, pretumoral and tumoral changes in the respiratory tracts of rats were revealed 180-540 days following a single inhalation of 239PuO2. The thickness of the bronchus wall and the diameter of their lumen remained significantly increased, as compared with the controls of the same age, throughout the entire period of observation.