Pulmonary vascular pressure-flow characteristics in canine pulmonary embolism.

We tested the hypothesis that, in canine embolic pulmonary hypertension, upstream transmission of increased left atrial pressure (LAP) is inversely related to the level of the pressure intercept (PI) obtained by extrapolation from the linear pulmonary vascular pressure-flow (P-Q) plot. P-Q coordinates were obtained by varying Q through systemic fistulas. Seven group 1 dogs were embolized with autologous blood clot to produce marked pulmonary hypertension and mean pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP), and PI increased from 15 to 41 mmHg (P less than 0.001) and from 8.8 to 31 mmHg (P less than 0.001), respectively. Before and after embolization we assessed effects of increased LAP, produced by inflation of a left atrial balloon, on PAP at constant Q. Embolization depressed the mean slope of this relationship from 0.78 to 0.16 (P less than 0.001). Subsequently, six group 2 dogs were embolized to produce moderate pulmonary hypertension with a mean PI of 22 mmHg. This value was significantly less than PI in group 1 (P less than 0.01). After embolization, the slope of the PAP-LAP relationship was greater in group 2 than group 1: 0.47 vs. 0.16 (P less than 0.01). We conclude that the upstream transmission of left atrial pressure is inversely related to PI and that marked embolic pulmonary hypertension produces an effective vascular waterfall.