The Tohoku journal of experimental medicine
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Tohoku J. Exp. Med. · Jan 1989
Collapse and reexpansion of lungs increase microvascular permeability in sheep.
The pathogenesis of reexpansion pulmonary edema has not been well studied. We tested the hypothesis that both long term collapse and subsequent reexpansion of the lungs cause reexpansion pulmonary edema by increasing pulmonary microvascular permeability. We investigated lymph dynamics in 15 experiments on collapsed lung and 10 experiments after lung reexpansion in 14 unanesthetized sheep with chronic lymph fistulas. ⋯ The lymph-to-plasma protein concentration ratio did not fall below the baseline. Reexpansion after 2-hr collapse did not affect these variables. We conclude that both long term lung collapse and subsequent reexpansion lead to reexpansion pulmonary edema by increasing pulmonary microvascular permeability.