Bronchitis

{brong-ki’ ’-tis) [fipoyxoQ, the windpipe; trig, inflammation]. Inflammation of the mucous membrane of the bronchial tubes. B., Acute, is due to exposure to cold, to the inhalation of irritant vapors, to certain infectious agents, etc. It is characterized by fever, cough, substernal pain, and by dry rales in the early, and moist rales in the later stages. B., Capillary, an acute bronchitis of the finer bronchioles; it is generally the result of a downward extension of an acute bronchitis. Children are most frequently affected. Dyspnea, nervous depre ion, and cyanosis are prominent symptoms. Catarrhal pneumonia is a common complication. B., Catarrhal, a form attended with profuse mucopurulent discharges. B., Chronic, a form of bronchitis usually occurring in middle or advanced life, characterized by cough and by dry and moist rales. It may be due to repeated attacks of acute bronchitis, to gout, rheumatism, or tuberculosis, or it may ’be secondary to cardiac and renal disease. B., Croupous, Fibrinous, or Plastic, a rare variety attended with the expectoration of casts of the bronchial tubes, containing Charcot- Leyden crystals and eosinophile cells, after a paroxysm of dyspnea and violent coughing. B., Dry, that unattended by expectoration. B., Mechanic, or Potter’s, a form caused by the inhalation of dust, etc. B., Potter’s. See B., Mechanic. B., Putrid, or Fetid, a variety of chronic bronchitis characterized by the discharge of a copious, half-liquid, extremely offensive sputum. B., Summer, hay -fever. 159