1 Department of Pathology, New York Medical College
An examination was made of the prominence of perivascular aggregates of eosinophilic leukocytes in thymic septa of cases of respiratory distress syndrome (hyaline membrane disease). Similar examinations were also made in cases of stillbirth and perinatal death unassociated with hyaline membrane disease. Moderate or marked thymic eosinophilia was found in more than 70% of 27 cases of hyaline membrane disease. This degree of eosinophilia was encountered in less than 10% of the control group.
Numerous eosinophils were also found in the axillary lymph nodes of four of eight cases of hyaline membrane disease, but in only 2 of 20 control cases.
The data are considered in terms of their relationship to adrenocorticoid levels in the fetus and the pathogenesis of hyaline membrane disease.
Submitted on October 22, 1958