Light and Electron Microscopy:
Cytology of the bronchial lavage revealed a few normal respiratory
epithelial cells with a background of proteinaceous acellular
material and cellular debris.
Histological sections of the transbronchial biopsy showed that
a high proportion of the alveolar spaces were distended by a granular
material, which was intensely PAS (with diastase) positive (Fig.
1). When samples of the biopsy were examined in the electron microscope,
the alveolar deposits consisted mainly of numerous round darkly
staining, partially fragmented structures formed of concentric
layers, which were narrow and uniform in thickness (Fig. 2).
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| Figure 1. PAS histochemical stain of transbronchial biopsy. Alveolar spaces contain considerable amounts of granular material. | Figure 2. Ultrastructurally, multilamellated structures are present within variably sized aggregates of finely granular material. |
