Measurements of airway edema in allergic bronchoconstriction in the guinea pig.

We tested the hypothesis that acute bronchoconstriction in the guinea pig was associated with airway edema by measuring extravascular water in the airways and lung parenchyma. Thirty guinea pigs were immunized with egg albumin and 30 nonimmunized guinea pigs served as controls. An aerosolized challenge with egg albumin produced acute respiratory distress in the immunized but not in the control animals. The animals were killed (6 per group) immediately and 1, 3, 6, and 24 h after the challenge, and the extravascular water content of the airways and parenchyma was measured. We found that airway extravascular water varied from 3.90 +/- 0.58 to 3.12 +/- 0.25 g/g dry tissue in the control group and from 3.61 +/- 0.41 to 3.79 +/- 0.33 g/g dry tissue in the experimental group. A two-way analysis of variance showed no difference between the groups. Similar results were found in parenchymal samples. We concluded that allergic bronchoconstriction in the guinea pig is not associated with airway edema.