Emphysema in a non-industrialized tropical island

Abstract

Whole lung sections (Gough-Wentworth) have been prepared after formalin liquid distension of the lungs from 643 necropsies performed in Jamaica. These included 572 Negro (African), 18 East Indian, 25 Chinese, and 28 white cases. Emphysematous change was assessed visually by comparison with a standard set of sections from Cardiff which were similar to those adopted by the Ciba Guest Symposium in 1959. Severe destructive emphysema was present in 1·8% of males and in 1·0% of females. Emphysema was more severe, and more frequent, in males than in females, while both sexes showed an increasing frequency and severity with advancing years. No appreciable racial difference was seen, except that `focal' emphysema, which includes the centrilobular type, was somewhat more frequent in East Indians than in the other racial groups. These observations indicate the occurrence of emphysema of the more common types in a hot climate which is apparently free of atmospheric pollution.