Radionuclidic Lung-Imaging Procedures in the Assessment of Injury due to Ammonia Inhalation

Clinical, physiologic, and bronchoscopic findings in a young man with acute injury of the respiratory tract due to inhalation of ammonia are described. Six months later, the patient's pulmonary function was reassessed by three radionuclidic lung-imaging procedures, which first revealed the sites and extent of the persisting obstructive disease processes. The diagnostic accuracy of the initial findings with radioactive xenon and aerosol were verified by the results of repeated bronchoscopic examination, bronchographic studies, standard pulmonary function tests, and lung-imaging procedures.