Bronchial mucus gland hypertrophy: Its relation to symptoms and environment

Abstract

Major bronchi from a series of 644 consecutive autopsies were examined for mucus gland hypertrophy and cellular infiltration. The findings were related to environmental histories, obtained before death from the patients themselves if possible, or after death from the relatives. The two measurements made to assess mucus gland hypertrophy were reasonably reproducible for any one case, but they were not closely related to each other, suggesting that they reflected different aspects of bronchitic change. In males smoking seemed to be the dominant factor in producing mucus gland hypertrophy. No significant effect of place of residence was seen, but the area in which the survey was carried out did not include any region of really heavy air pollution. The smoking habit seemed to be largely responsible for the increased incidence of mucus gland hypertrophy in men in the older age-groups. Pipe-smokers and ex-cigarette-smokers had almost as high an incidence of mucus gland hypertrophy as cigarette-smokers. The clinical symptoms of chronic cough and expectoration were associated with mucus gland hypertrophy. The incidence of mucus gland hypertrophy was higher in the various lung diseases studied than in patients with no evidence of lung disease. There was little difference in incidence between the various lung diseases. No consistent association between inflammatory cell infiltration in the bronchus and mucus gland hypertrophy was seen.