On the pathology and treatment of albuminuria / by W. Howship Dickinson.

Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the pathology and treatment of albuminuria / by W. Howship Dickinson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    Pus casts. Granular casts. Diameter of casts. stated, casts may contain anything which traverses the tubes. They therefore give an insight into what is going on in the gland, while by their diameter they show the calibre of the cavity in which they were moulded. If epithelial cells are imbedded, there is a catarrhal or inflammatory state of the tubes, which promotes the growth and detachment of cells. If pus cells are included, the inflammatory or catarrhal state has taken such hold of the tubes that the epithelial cells are replaced by pus globules. Blood globules will show that there has existed enough congestion to rupture, or at least create migration through the malpighian capillaries. Amorphous granular matter will vary in its indication, according to its origin. It appears that such granular matter is of two kinds, one sort produced by the breaking up of detached epithelial cells, and generally associated with a late stage of tubal inflammation ; the other sort belonging to granular degeneration, and apparently con- sisting of comminuted and altered fibrine. The diameter of the casts will give indications of a certain kind. If the casts are of small size, not more than i pi— of an inch in thickness, they have come from tubes which retain their epithelial lining. If they are of large size, or thereabouts, they have been moulded in tubes which have lost their epithelial lining. If of larger size still—they may even be nearly double the width last mentioned—they have come from tubes which, in addition to the loss of their cellular lining, have become dilated. Casts of the largest sort may be always regarded as having been formed in the straight tubes, while the smaller varieties may come from the straight or convoluted tubes indifferently.