Measurement of Pulmonary Edema

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Abstract
Two methods for the measurement of pulmonary edema are compared. The first method, which permits serial measurements in vivo, depends on the difference in mean transit time of a water label and an intravascular label. The second method is a postmortem one in which total lung water is measured and allocated to the pulmonary blood or to pulmonary extravascular water. Three groups of six dogs each were studied: controls, a group with pulmonary edema produced by elevating pulmonary venous pressure, and a group with pulmonary edema produced by alloxan. The isotopic as compared with the postmortem method accounted for 71% of the pulmonary extravascular water found in the controls, 94% in high pressure edema and 57% in alloxan edema. Shunting, as measured by a large fall in PaO2 despite 100% oxygen breathing, became marked in a second group of five alloxan dogs and only 31% of the postmortem pulmonary extravascular water was measured by the isotope method. It is concluded that the isotope transit time method is ...

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