[Electron microscopy observation on pre- and post-treatment skin of dorsum pedis of chyluric patient treated with heat-clearing and hemostatic drugs--the lymphangial wall damage being the pathogenesis of chyluria].

Heat-clearing and hemostatic drugs were effective in treating chyluria. In order to explore the curative mechanism, a group of 10 in-patients with chyluria were chosen and treated with heat-clearing and hemostatic drugs for 45 days. Some pre- and post-treatment skin from dorsum pedis of the patients were taken off and observed under electron microscope. It showed that the walls of lymphatic capillaries were seriously damaged before treatment and rehabilitated wall after treatment. The pinocytotic vesicles were packed tightly in the endothelial cells of capillaries before treatment and their number was decreased remarkably after treatment; the mast cells were rare in number and abnormal as spindle shape before treatment and they increased in number and became round or oval in shape, the nucleus became large, the granules they contained became more in number and larger in size after treatment, lymph edema was noticed before treatment and it disappeared after treatment. The result showed that the extensive lesion of lymphangial walls is the pathogenesis of chyluria, while the rehabilitation of them is the curative mechanism. It seems that in the process of rehabilitation the mast cells act took the role of "soldier-engineer".