The Prevalence of Emphysema in 67 Unselected Male Necropsies

¹ Chief, Pulmonary Function Laboratory, veterans Administration Hospital and Assistant Professor of Medicine, Baylor University College of Medicine
² Assistant Professor of Pathology, Baylor University College of Medicine
³ Pulmonary Function Laboratory, Veterans Administration Hospital, Pulmonary Section, Department of Medicine and the Department of Pathology, Baylor University College of Medicin

Sixty-seven lungs from 67 unselected men necropsies were inflated and fixed using formalin steam. Emphysema was present in 62.6 per cent and its prevalence showed rise up to the 7th decade of life. Lower frequency of emphysema was observed in necropsies of Negro men as compared with white men, but this was not significant at the 5 per cent level. Emphysema, when present in these unselected necropsies, was of mild degree (20 per cent or less) in 80.9 per cent. The centrilobular type was present in all cases and was the predominant type when two or all three types of emphysema were present in the same lung (centrilobular, panlobular and bullous).