Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 21, 2026

A Model of Reverse Vascular Remodeling in Pulmonary Hypertension Due to Left Heart Disease by Aortic Debanding in Rats
Published on: March 1, 2022
Mechanisms of disease/hypothesis: neurogenic left ventricular dysfunction and neurogenic pulmonary oedema
Sascha Meyer1, Angelika Lindinger, Günther Löffler
1Department of Paediatric Intensive Care Medicine and Neonatology, University Hospital of Saarland, Homburg, Germany. sascha.meyer@uniklinik-saarland.de
Background:
Acute onset of cardiovascular dysfunction may be the result of insults to the central nervous and autonomic system. Several cerebral regions (insular cortex, lateral, hypothalamus, and brain stem) have been identified as part of the "central autonomic network". The brain stem plays an integral role in controlling and mediating autonomic tone.
Patient And Methods:
Case reports.
Results:
These two case reports demonstrate the intimate connectivity between the cardiovascular/pulmonary system and the central nervous system in a 13-year-old girl with occipital angiomatosis, but no history of heart disease who developed profound left ventricular dysfunction and pulmonary oedema following pontine haemorrhage, and in a 5-year-old girl who developed severe pulmonary oedema after suffering from status epilepticus.
Conclusions:
The two case reports suggest that cardiovascular dysfunction secondary to central nervous insults and neurogenic pulmonary oedema are not two separate clinical entities, but may very well encompass two different presentations of central autonomic disturbances.
Related Concept Videos
Pulmonary Edema II: Pathophysiology
Heart Failure II: Pathophysiology
Pulmonary Hypertension: Classification and Pathogenesis
There are various classifications for PH, each relating to different underlying causes and also...
Pathophysiology of Heart Failure
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease-II: Pathophysiology
Chronic Inflammation
Mitral Stenosis I: Introduction

