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Bronchopulmonary involvement is uncommon in ulcerative colitis. Bronchiectasis is a rare manifestation of the disease. We report a case of a 65-year-old patient with ulcerative colitis in whom we diagnosed bronchiectasis. The evidence of a relationship between bronchiectasis and ulcerative colitis was established on the basis of 3 criteria: the late occurrence of bronchiectasis in a patient without pulmonary history, their appearance after the ulcerative colitis developed and their improvement after inhaled corticosteroid treatment. This observation points out that ulcerative colitis investigations should be extended to the respiratory structures. The respiratory involvement is not always concomitant with the bowel disease. This observation suggests the efficiency of the inhaled corticosteroids in this disease.

The authors describe a case of congenital lobar emphysema of the upper right pulmonary lobe discovered at birth with an opaque hemithorax and a shift of mediastinum. The diagnosis was confirmed by a CT-scan. A lobectomy was performed at 6 weeks of age. The different diagnosis and physiopathological mechanisms are discussed.

Mouth pressure measured during maximal inspiratory or expiratory efforts depends on the force exerted by ventilatory muscles. Normal values and anthropometric factors accounting for maximal inspiratory and expiratory pressures (MIP, MEP) are not fully agreed upon to date. We measured MIP and MEP in 253 normal subjects (135 females and 118 males, age 15-59 years) using a digital transducer (163 Sibelmed). All subjects had normal forced vital capacity (FVC) and one second forced expiratory volume (FEV1). Sex, age, height and weight were recorded for all subjects and were entered as independent variables in computation of linear multiple regressions with MEP or MIP the dependent variables. MEP and MIP were greater in males than in females (p less than 0.01) with MIP lower than MEP in both sexes (p less than 0.01). In both males and females, FVC and FEV1 depend on age and height (p less than 0.01). In the entire group, we found a correlation of MIP in females and MEP in males with age (p less than 0.01) and of both MIP and MEP in females with weight (p less than 0.01). However, in subjects aged 20-59 years, there was no significant dependence of MIP and MEP on age, and when the weight of subjects was normal (n = 170), MIP and MEP were independent of weight. We conclude that in adults aged 20-59 years and with normal weight, maximal ventilatory pressures depend solely on sex. In this subgroup mean (+/- SD) values of MEP and MIP were 111 +/- 25 cmH2O and 79 +/- 19 cmH2O respectively in females and 192 +/- 42 cmH2O and 117 +/- 25 cmH2O in males.