[State of the kinin-regulating function of the lungs in the perioperative period in patients undergoing thoracic surgery].

Kallikrein-kinin system (prekallikrein and kallikrein) has been studied in arterial and mixed venous blood of 22 patients operated on the lungs and mediastinum for suppurative processes and tumors and in 15 patients operated on for ischemic heart disease (aortocoronary bypass surgery). The study was conducted before surgery, immediately after the operation was over, and 8 to 10 hours after surgery. It has been observed that the lungs do not play an essential part in the regulation of background plasma kallikrein activity. Metabolic function as regards kallikrein manifests only with the activation of kallikrein synthesis in systemic circulation. Pathologically changed pulmonary tissue is itself a source of elevated kinin formation, whose products, in their turn, are destroyed in the organs and tissues of systemic circulation, while surgical interventions on the lungs are also accompanied by short-term enhancement of kinin release into the arterial blood.