SOME FINDINGS ON THE POST‐MORTEM ASSOCIATION OF RIGHT VENTRICULAR WALL THICKNESS AND CHRONIC OBSTRUCTIVE BRONCHITIS, PNEUMOCONIOSIS, EMPHYSEMA AND TUBERCULOSIS

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Abstract
In a post‐mortem series from New South Wales coal miners, averaged measurements of right ventricular wall thicknesses were made, the thickness of the non‐septal portion having been measured at five levels. These data were correlated against assessed grades of chronic bronchitis derived from measurements of the Reid index and the wall‐lumen ratio in the same subjects. These gradings correlated well with documented ante‐mortem symptoms and signs and with bronchitis gradings based thereon. Not only was pronounced right ventricular hypertrophy invariably present in moderate and severe grades of chronic obstructive bronchitis, but there was evidence of a continuous spectrum of hypertrophy with minor degrees being present at the earlier stages of chronic bronchitis. Strong associations were also demonstrated between right ventricular hypertrophy and such pathological conditions as coal workers' pneumoconiosis and posttuberculous fibrosis. There was no association between right ventricular hypertrophy and the extent of emphysema in the lungs; even at advanced grades of emphysema, no right ventricular hypertrophy was noted, unless a cause other than emphysema were present. There was some evidence that certain conditions, for example carcinoma of the lung, asthma, bronchiectasis with middle‐lobe syndrome, late effect of extensive thoracic injury, extensive organized pulmonary thrombosis, etc., may have been partly associated with right ventricular hypertrophy.