Experimental Pulmonary Edema. III. Hypoglycemia, a Cause of Pulmonary Edema.

Abstract

Albino rats of the Slonaker strain when kept in a state of hypoglycemia by insulin injns. for a period of some hrs. invariably develop fatal pulmonary edema. Adrenalectomy and adrenal demedullation reduce the degree of edema but fail to prevent it. Adequate doses of the adrenergic blocking agent, N-(9-fluorenyl)-N-ethyl-beta-chlorethylamine-HCl, prevent this hypoglycemia lung edema entirely. This type of pulmonary edema is possibly neurogenic in origin due to the influence of glucose lack on the nerve centers where the vasomotor fibers to the lungs and heart originate.