Lung thermal volume in pulmonary edema: effect of positive end expiratory pressure

Effects of intermittent (IPPB) and positive eng-expiratory pressure (PEEP) ventilation on accumulation of pulmonary edema were compared, in dogs, after infusion of oleic acid. Pulmonary extravascular water was approximated as lung thermal volume (LTV), a double indicator method based on differential transit time for simultaneously injected right-to-left conductivity and thermal pulses. LTV was found to be decreased in animals treated with PEEP. The possibility that observed LTV changes reflect only the effect of PEEP on flow distribution, not lung water, was examined by alternating PEEP and IPPB; short-term changes in LTV did not occur. Mean values of other factors influencing pulmonary water transfer, e.g., pulmonary capillary wedge pressure, serum protein, arterial blood gasses, were not significantly different with or without PEEP. It was concluded that, for the oleic acid lesion, PEEP effects a small reduction in the rate of accumulation of pulmonary edema.