Ultrastructural morphometry of the blood-air barrier in pulmonary sarcoidosis.

Stereologic techniques were utilized in an electron microscopic study of biopsy samples obtained from the lungs of seven patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis. Relative fractional volumes of alveolar septal components and the arithmetic mean thickness and harmonic mean thickness of alveolocapillary membranes (blood-air barrier) were compared with values for normal lungs. Based on morphometric analysis, increases in the arithmetic mean thickness and the harmonic mean thickness of the alveolocapillary membranes appeared too small to account for the reduction in gas transfer present; however, there was a quantitative relative increase in interstitial tissue in alveolar septa, which does not take part in gas exchange, at the expense of the capillary bed, which is critical to this function.