Department of Breast Surgery, Tongji Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Respir Physiol Neurobiol. 2011 Sep 15;178(2):283-9. doi: 10.1016/j.resp.2011.06.024. Epub 2011 Jul 6.
Microscopy of subpleural alveoli has become an important technique to analyze alveolar morphology during mechanical ventilation. Mere contact of a microscope with the lung, however, may alter the local pressure at the pleural surface and thus the transmural pressure of the alveoli under view. The effect of local pleural pressure changes on alveolar morphology during microscopy has not been systematically evaluated hitherto. We developed a new microscopic device enabling control of the pressure directly at the field of view. In 6 isolated rat lungs we systematically varied the transmural pressure of subpleural alveoli by varying both the local pleural pressure and the alveolar pressure. Results show fixation pressure, alveolar pressure and local pleural pressure significantly influenced alveolar size and the number of alveoli per field of view. Our study demonstrates the important impact of local pleural pressure on the morphology of subpleural alveoli. We conclude that local pressures need to be determined during microscopy of subpleural alveoli to avoid misinterpretation of changes in alveolar geometry.
亚肺泡显微镜检查已成为分析机械通气期间肺泡形态的重要技术。然而，显微镜与肺的仅仅接触可能会改变胸膜表面的局部压力，从而改变所观察的肺泡的跨壁压力。迄今为止，尚未系统地评估显微镜检查过程中局部胸膜压力变化对肺泡形态的影响。我们开发了一种新的显微镜设备，能够直接在视场中控制压力。在 6 个离体大鼠肺中，我们通过改变局部胸膜压力和肺泡压力来系统地改变亚肺泡的跨壁压力。结果表明，固定压力、肺泡压力和局部胸膜压力显著影响肺泡大小和每个视场的肺泡数量。我们的研究表明，局部胸膜压力对亚肺泡形态有重要影响。我们得出结论，在亚肺泡显微镜检查过程中需要确定局部压力，以避免对肺泡几何形状变化的误解。
