Diameter and flow velocity changes in small pulmonary vessels due to microembolization.

The pulmonary vascular bed was embolized with glass beads in small doses that induced no significant changes in pulmonary arterial pressure in anesthetized cats. We analyzed changes in internal diameter (ID), flow velocity, and volume flow of embolized and nonembolized arteries simultaneously with ID changes of small veins. In embolized arteries, with 180-, 300-, and 500-microns beads, ID constricted maximally in just proximal portions of the plug by 22, 23, and 17%, respectively, but with 840-microns beads, no ID constriction occurred. With 50-microns beads, the maximum ID constriction occurred in arteries of 200-300 microns but not in those of 100-200 microns. The constriction decreased in the upstream larger arteries and disappeared in those greater than 800 microns ID. In the nonembolized arteries no ID change occurred. Veins constricted slightly compared with arteries. By heparin pretreatment, ID constriction was slightly attenuated in arteries and was almost abolished in veins, whereas it was not affected with hexamethonium bromide. At a branching site, volume flow to an embolized artery decreased because of a decrease in ID and flow velocity, whereas volume flow to a nonembolized artery increased because of an increase in flow velocity. We concluded that pulmonary microembolization induced a vasoconstriction chiefly in small pulmonary arteries upstream to the plug. After embolization, blood flow was locally redistributed from an embolized to a nonembolized artery at a branching site. Arterial vasoconstriction may be mediated chiefly by local mechanical factors.