INTERPRETATION OF ROENTGENOGRAMS OF THE CHEST IN CHILDREN BASED ON OBSERVATIONS AT NECROPSY

This study was undertaken for the purpose of ascertaining what pathologic changes were present in the lungs of children to account for shadows in the roentgenograms of the chest. In previous papers,1the normal chest, the hilar shadows and the linear markings and tuberculosis were discussed. In this paper, observations in bronchopneumonia and lobar pneumonia and diseases of the pleura and of the mediastinum will be considered. PNEUMONIA In young children, lobar pneumonia occurs less frequently than bronchopneumonia, and fewer cases come to necropsy because it is less fatal. The picture of a dense homogeneous shadow involving one lobe or part of one lobe, with fairly sharp borders, is easily recognized. There is no displacement of the trachea, mediastinum or heart. In a few instances when lobar pneumonia had been diagnosed before death, a massive bronchopneumonia, pseudolobar in character, was found. The areas of involvement in bronchopneumonia were small,