[Pulmonary perfusion in embolism of pulmonar arteries without pulmonary infarction (author's transl)]

Six autopsy lungs with embolism of the pulmonary arteries but without infarction, were subjected to comparative angiographic and morphologic examination of bronchial arteries. In pulmonary embolism without hemorrhagic infarction the disconnected vascular bed of pulmonary arteries can be demonstrated distally of the obstructive thrombo-embolism and with a noncapillary contrast medium. The vascular bed appears in intrapulmonal, precapillary, bronchopulmonal anastoses. The results of the investigation explain an intravital sufficient subsidiary circulation in the pulmonary areas separated from the normal circulation of pulmonary arteries. An extended subsidiary development of bronchial arteries in reaction to previous chronic pulmonary disease would help, according to our findings in postmortem lung angiographies, to support the circulation after embolism of pulmonary arteries.