Palatal tonsil changes and interstitial microbial foci in chronic tonsillitis

• Published in: Arkhiv patologii Vol. 43; no. 5; p. 10
• Main Author: Vartazarian, N D
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Russian
• Published: Russia (Federation) 1981
• Subjects: Cadaver; Chronic Disease; Humans; Mucus - microbiology; Palatine Tonsil - microbiology; Palatine Tonsil - pathology; Streptococcal Infections - microbiology; Streptococcal Infections - pathology; Streptococcus - isolation & purification; Tonsillitis - microbiology; Tonsillitis - pathology
• ISSN: 0004-1955

Bacteriological, histological, immunomorphological, and bacterioscopic methods were used to study faucial tonsils removed in 85 patients with chronic tonsillitis and 100 cadavers of apparently normal subjects dying of trauma. The main feature of chronic tonsillitis was interstitial streptococcal infection. The size of interstitial microbial foci with broken integrity of the histohematic barrier and typical morphological signs defining the chronic tonsillitis as a whole are important. Three main morphological signs determining the presence of chronic tonsillitis should be distinguished: (1) microbial (large interstitial streptococcal foci and colonies of the microbes), (2) immunomorphological (hyperplasia of lymphoid follicles and plasmatization of the lymphoid tissue, cryptal epithelium and the surrounding tissue with accumulation of the cells containing IgM and IgG, and in adults also increase content of IgA producers); (3) pathological (foci of perivascular sclerosis, granulation tissue, wide cryptae filled with necrotic masses and microbes). These lesions indicate transformation of faucial tonsils into a focus of infection with an appropriate complex of tissue changes in which streptococci frequently break the integrity of barriers and penetrate into the blood and lymph vessels.