[The significance of immunologic phenomenons in pulmonary diseases of children (author's transl)].

Under special conditions the lung develops reactions of hypersensitivity, e.g. by the contact with antigens consisting of foreign proteins, organic dusts or different pathogen organisms. It must be distinguished between uncomplicated allergic and autoimmune diseases. The exact separation is difficult, because transitions from one state to the other are possible. The autoimmunisation is a very complicated phenomenon, where endogensou cells are effective as auto-antigens and induce the development of auto-antibodies. From the pathological-anatomical point of view thate are no typical structural changes in the lung, which define a disease as a special autoimmune disease. But the prevalence of round cells in inflamed tissue, the appearance of granuloma with epithelial cells point to immunological phenomenons. Examples for allergic diseases are: "Asthma bronchiale, pigeon-breeder disease, mite-allergy, farmer's lung, drug-induced allergy", and for autoimmune diseases: "Lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, polyarteritis nodosa, idiopathic pulmonary hemosiderosis, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis." The drug-therapy consists of corticoids and immune-suppressive drugs.