Hydrostatic pulmonary edema in the cat. Effects on pulmonary blood and water volumes and on lung compliance.

The effect on lung compliance of changes in intra- and extravascular volumes has been studied. Such changes were induced by inflation and deflation of a balloon placed in the left atrium in open-chest cats. Blood constituents were labeled with isotopes, and tissue water content was found from the wet/dry labeled with isotopes, and tissue water content was found from the wet/dry weight ratio. When left atrial pressure (PLA) was elevated to a value not exceeding 32 mmHg (4.256 kPa), there was only a minute increase in tissue water volume, and we observed a reversible reduction in lung compliance related to the rise in lung blood volume. At higher PLA, a rapid rise occurred in extravascular fluid volume, with evidence of alveolar flooding. Earlier experiemtns have shown that, in isolated perfused lung, a situation of slow, steady increase in interstitial fluid can be created. This does not seem to be the case with lungs in situ: once the lymphatic drainage is unable to cope with transvascular fluid flow, an unstable situation is created. This rapidly leads to alveolar flooding and a fall in compliance in addition to that caused by a rise in blood volume. From our fluid and pressure determinations, we calculated a filtration coefficient (Kf) of 0.45 ml/100 g wet lung X cmH2O X h. This is within the range reported for sheep lungs. Observation of dynamic lung compliance cannot be used for detection of interstitial fluid accumulation. It appears, however, that in contrast to isolated lungs, this phase of edema-formation rapidly leads to alveolar flooding.