[Clinical and therapeutic characteristics of respiratory diseases in chronic alcoholism].

Out of 633 male patients aged 20 to 60 years (the mean age 37.1 +/- 8.2 years) with chronic alcoholism treated at hospital, pulmonary diseases (with the exception of tuberculosis) were revealed in 121 (19.3%), namely chronic bronchitis in 27 (4.3%), lung emphysema in 67 (10.7%), pneumosclerosis in 18 (2.9%), bronchial asthma in 9 (1.4%), which was 2-3 times as frequent as in the total population. The patients with associated alcoholism and pulmonary diseases differed but insignificantly from the total patients' population as regards the age, alcoholism standing, and patterns of alcohol abuse. The treatment consisted in combination of active antialcoholic therapy and specific therapy of pulmonary diseases. In prolonged alcoholism remissions, the pulmonary process was discovered to be stabilized and compensated for.