White Pneumonia

WHITE PNEUMONIA (pneumonia, s. hepatatio alba Virchow's), syphilitic pneumonia, often observed in newborns with congenital syphilis. The inflammation of the lungs in white pneumonia has rather diffuse distribution and is predominantly of an interstitial nature, accompanied by thickening and sclerosis of interalveolar, peribronchial, and interlobular spaces, or (much more rarely) of a catarrhal-exudative nature with accumulation in the alveoli and bronchi of leukocytes and desquamated fatty epithelium. The term white pneumonia is mainly applicable to cases of the latter category (the presence of cellular exudate gives the organ's section a whitish color); however, the color can vary greatly here, up to dark red, for example, in macerated fetuses. For interstitial forms, when they also appear 'white,' for example, due to abundant proliferation of connective tissue, Kaufmann proposes the name 'white carnification.' White pneumonia is often accompanied by significant blurring of the lung pattern, which is associated with simultaneous violation of the organ's development on the basis of syphilis. Sometimes in white pneumonia, miliary gummas are found in the altered lung tissue, as well as changes in vessels characteristic of syphilis. For the diagnosis of white pneumonia, the discovery of spirochetes in sections and smears from the lungs is also important. Fetuses with white pneumonia are nonviable.