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General and Systemic Histopathology, C601&C602
     
    Slide 74: Lung with passive congestion
     
     
    The congested vessels literally leap out of the tissue on this slide. Look not only at the vessels, but also the frothy material that has collected within the alveolar spaces.  What's going on here?

    See this slide with the virtual microscope.

    The changes here are a little subtle. The blood vessels are distended and "over filled" with blood. They have became dilated, in this case,  because of the back up of blood in the pulmonary circulation due to an abruptly failing left ventricle. This person had a myocardial infarction, and experienced sudden failure of the pump. You may see evidence of pulmonary edema in the alveolar air spaces. The edema fluid will appear as a faint pink stained material in the background of the air spaces. It represents the extravasation of fluid through the vessel wall as a result of the increased lumenal pressure.


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