Physical factors affecting normal and serotonin-constricted pulmonary vessels

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Abstract
The effects of changes of pulmonary blood flow, pulmonary venous and pulmonary arterial pressure on calculated pulmonary vascular resistance were evaluated in open-chest, intact dogs, in which the pulmonary and systemic circulations were separately perfused. Similar observations were made after constricting the pulmonary vessels by continuous infusion of serotonin. An increase in pulmonary blood flow produced a decrease in pulmonary vascular resistance. At high flows, the calculated resistance in the serotonin-constricted vessels could be reduced to levels considered normal at lower flows in normal vessels. An increase of pulmonary venous pressure resulted in a decrease of calculated resistance up to pulmonary venous pressure levels of 15–20 mm Hg in ‘normal’ vessels, but in serotonin-constricted vessels, resistance continued to be decreased by increase of pulmonary venous pressure up to 25–30 mm Hg. These findings confirm that the usual formula for calculating pulmonary vascular resistance assesses only resistance to flow, but does not provide information regarding vascular tone.