Differential Diagnosis and Treatment of Disease

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1906 edition. Excerpt: ...of complications such as pleurisy and empyema, endocarditis, meningitis, nephritis, parotitis, peritonitis, otitis, enterocolitis, embolism, etc., are discussed under their respective headings. CHRONIC FORMS OF BRONCHITIS AND BRONCHOPNEUMONIA Simple Chronic Bronchitis Simple chronic bronchitis may follow repeated attacks of acute bronchitis, and is commonly met with in chronic cardiac pulmonary and renal disease, also in arteriosclerosis and syphilis. It is the winter cough of old people and is frequently associated with emphysema of the lungs. Symptoms.--Shortness of breath on exertion. Freedom from cough in the summer, but a persistent cough in the winter, the chief distress being night and morning. The expectoration is mucopurulent or the cough may be dry. There is usually no fever, and the general health may be good with a tendency to emphysema and bronchiectasis. Physical Signs.--The chest is usually distended and the movements are limited, with diminished vocal fremitus in emphysema. Auscultation reveals expiration prolonged and feeble or wheezing, with diffuse, bilateral piping and snoring rhonchi or moist rales of all sizes (often crepitant at the base). Clinical Varieties.--In addition to the ordinary variety just described, we occasionally meet with cases of excessive bronchial secretion for which the term bronchorrhna has been coined (purulenta and serosa). This variety is not to be confounded with bronchiectasis. Putrid bronchitis is met with in adults and children in connection with bronchiectasis, gangrene, abscess of the lung, or perforating empyema. Bronchitis with calcareous masses in the sputum is very rare. Dry catarrh with severe paroxysms of coughing without expectoration is often met with in older persons. In all...