PULMONARY APOPLEXY. HÆMORRHAGIC INFARCTION.
Different forms. Embolism with infarction. Embolism from arteritis. Rupture of bloodvessel. Changes in color. Symptoms. Repair.
Hæmorrhage into the lungs may be: 1st. Petechial in infectious diseases. 2d. interlobular as from ruptured vessels. 3d. Infarction or apoplexy. Infarction results from embolism of a branch of the pulmonary artery, which may in its turn be due to clots formed in a diseased heart or in the systemic veins and carried to the lungs in the blood stream. It may also result from inflammation of the inner coat of the pulmonary artery. A virtual stasis occurs beyond the embolism, and the blood filtering in through the anastomosing capillaries fills and blackens the affected lobule. With rupture of a considerable vessel the blood escapes en masse and appears like black currant jelly. As it ages it becomes granular and changes to a yellow color, or it may form a necrotic mass enclosed in a cyst as in lung plague. The symptoms, apart from the absence of respiratory murmur and resonance, are not diagnostic. It may take months to undergo liquefaction and absorption. Iodide of potassium, bitters and stimulating diuretics may be given.