Pressure-Flow Relationships in the Dog Lung During Acute, Subtotal Pulmonary Vascular Occlusion

Abstract

The relationship of pulmonary artery pressure to pulmonary blood flow was studied in the dog by means of occlusive shifting of blood flow within the pulmonary vascular bed. All experiments were performed using the closed-chest preparation. The range of blood flow increases studied was 25–388%. A graphical plot of the percentage change in blood flow versus the percentage change in mean pulmonary artery pressure is presented. A visually estimated curve of this latter data is presented, discussed and compared to four other curves from previous pulmonary vascular studies. A comparison of these curves suggests that the relative maximum capacity of the pulmonary vascular bed of man and dog are similar. These curves plus certain assumptions allow the speculative delineation of a graphical area representing the ‘active’ vasomotor component of exercise at different levels of pulmonary blood flow increase.