The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Vol 97, 24-29, Copyright © 1989 by The American Association for Thoracic Surgery and The Western Thoracic Surgical Association
Pulmonary flow-resistance relationships in allografts after single lung transplantation in dogs
K Eishi, A Takazawa, M Nagatsu, K Hirata, M Yamagishi, E Imamura, H Koyanagi and H Kurosawa
Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Heart Institute of Japan, Tokyo Women's Medical College.
To evaluate the applicability of single lung transplantation as a treatment
of pulmonary hypertension, we investigated the relationships between the
pulmonary blood flow and resistance in allografts 10 days after single lung
transplantation in dogs. In eight surviving recipients and five healthy
dogs (control group), pulmonary flow- resistance relationships were
investigated at flows in the range of 0.3 to 2.0 L/min at 0.1 L/min
increments. Resistance decreased from 2585 to 746 dyne.sec.cm-5 in the
successful group (five allografts receiving complete studies) and 2400 to
891 in the control group with an increase of flow. Lung water content of
the successful group was 2.0 times that of the control group (successful
group, 95.6 +/- 16.7 gm; control group, 47.8 +/- 7.5 gm), and water content
of the other allografts (unsuccessful group), including allografts of dogs
that died before investigations, was 2.2 times that of the successful group
(unsuccessful group, 211.0 +/- 89.6 gm). The chest roentgenograms of the
successful group showed mild or moderate consolidations, whereas those of
the unsuccessful group showed severe consolidations, but no difference was
found in pulmonary flow-resistance relationships between the successful and
the control groups. These results show that the allografts, which have
about twice the water content of normal lung, maintain adequate pulmonary
vascular function. We concluded that single lung transplantation could be
an effective treatment for pulmonary hypertension.
