Regional differences in expansion in excised dog lung lobes.

The position of small metallic markers embedded within the lung parenchyma and glued to the pleural surface of four excised right caudal dog lobes were determined during stepwise deflation from an airway opening pressure of 25 cmH2O in air-filled suspended lobes and 8 cmH2O in saline-filled lobes submerged in saline. Changes in the volumes of tetrahedrons formed by four noncoplanar markers were taken as regional lung volume changes at the centroids of the tetrahedron. In both air- and saline-filled lobes at all volumes below total lobe capacity (TLC) there was considerable variability in regional volume. The variability occurred at the first step below TLC and increased with deflation. Regions behaved consistently; regions that were proportionally larger or smaller than the overall lobe at any step tended to be larger or smaller, respectively, at all steps. There was a significant correlation between the regional behavior of the air- and saline-filled lobes. The variability of regional volume did not follow any clear topographical orientation. These results indicate there is considerable variability of lung compliance within small regions. This heterogeneity of regional parenchymal properties may be the anatomical basis of the nonuniformity of regional ventilation known to occur in intact animals and excised lobes within small regions at the same vertical height.