Indium lung disease.

Background: Reports of pulmonary fibrosis, emphysema, and, more recently, pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP) in indium workers suggested that workplace exposure to indium compounds caused several different lung diseases.

Methods: To better understand the pathogenesis and natural history of indium lung disease, a detailed, systematic, multidisciplinary analysis of clinical, histopathologic, radiologic, and epidemiologic data for all reported cases and workplaces was undertaken.

Results: Ten men (median age, 35 years) who produced, used, or reclaimed indium compounds were diagnosed with interstitial lung disease 4-13 years after first exposure (n = 7) or PAP 1-2 years after first exposure (n = 3).

Arterial blood lactate is a useful guide to when rehabilitation should be instigated in COPD.

Background And Objective: Systemic effects of COPD include skeletal muscle dysfunction; the lactate threshold (LT) is an index of such dysfunction. However, it is not feasible in daily clinical practice to accurately determine the LT in all patients with COPD. There is no simple, practical and non-invasive index for determining the time at which rehabilitation should start.

Sclerosing hemangioma isolated to the mediastinum.

Sclerosing hemangioma is an uncommon tumor of unknown histogenesis that generally develops in the lung. We report on a 48-year-old woman with a sclerosing hemangioma that was apparently isolated to the mediastinum. To our knowledge, sclerosing hemangioma arising in the mediastinum has not been previously reported.