Lung thermal volume as an indicator of pulmonary extravascular water.

Double-indicator dilution methods can be used for measurement of lung water. The thermal conductivity method is based on heat as a diffusible and conductivity as a non-diffusible indicator. In the present study we correlated lung thermal volume with gravimetrical measurement of extravascular lung water after thrombin-induced microembolization in dog lungs. The embolization was accompanied by significantly increased vascular permeability and accumulation of interstitial water. Under these conditions there was a close correlation between the two methods of measuring lung water (r = 0.78, p less than 0.01).