Effects of catecholamine-infusions and hypoxia on pulmonary blood volume and extravascular lung water content in cats.

The effects of catecholamine-infusions and of hypoxia on lung blood volume and on extravascular lung water content have been studied in anesthetized cats with opened chests. To this end a biopsy technique, with isotope labelling of blood and with successive removal of the smaller lung lobes, was employed. Mean pulmonary arterial pressure increased by 30-75% upon infusing catecholamines or upon inducing general hypoxia, the latter stimulus being the more powerful one. Pulmonary blood volume did not increase during these procedures, where an active constriction of pulmonary vessels thus apparently took place. The extravascular lung water content was found to be reduced in animals infused with noradrenaline or ventilated by hypoxic air, whereas a small increase was observed in the animals receiving adrenaline. This difference might reflect domination of precapillary vasoconstriction in the former groups, whereas postcapillary vasoconstriction could be more pronounced with adrenaline.