Medical expert of the article
New publications
Causes of Chronic Pneumonia
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
Chronic pneumonia is formed under the influence of various factors:
- adverse outcome of acute pneumonia;
- atelectasis of various genesis, including congenital;
- Aspiration of foreign bodies;
- chronic aspiration of food;
- congenital malformations of the tracheobronchial tree;
- congenital microdefects of bronchial structures;
- immunodeficiency;
- ciliary dysfunction, etc.
The most frequent pathogens that support the chronic inflammatory process in altered bronchial tubes are hemophilic rod, pneumococcus, hemolytic streptococcus, gram-negative conditionally pathogenic flora.
The incidence of primary chronic pneumonia in children is progressively decreasing. This is mainly due to the increased quality of diagnosis of acute pneumonia and the use of active antibiotics in their treatment, the improvement of diagnosis of congenital malformations and hereditary diseases, in which the chronic bronchopulmonary process is secondary to the underlying disease.
Pathogenesis of chronic pneumonia. In the pathogenesis, the leading role is played by the violation of bronchial patency and atelectasis. In the lesion on the background of hypoxia, there is a disturbance of lympho- and blood circulation, trophic, innervation; a decrease in the enzymatic activity of cellular elements in the severity of proliferative processes.
The morphological basis of chronic pneumonia is limited pneumosclerosis with deformation and expansion of bronchi in its zone. The predominance of one or another component of irreversible changes in the bronchopulmonary system determines a wide range of clinical and radiological manifestations in this disease: from local asymptomatic pneumofibrosis to severe bronchoecta-tigers disease.
With local (limited) pneumosclerosis, sclerosing encompasses the distal parts of the bronchi and peribronhial tissues.
Bronchoectatic disease is a variant of chronic pneumonia, the main morphological substrate of which is the regional enlargement of the bronchi, mainly in the lower segments of the lungs, accompanied by a nasal process.
[