Magnetic resonance characterization of pulmonary arterial blood flow after single lung transplantation

Magnetic resonance imaging has been used to study pulmonary arterial anatomy and to measure pulmonary arterial blood flow in patients with single lung transplantation. Nine patients and nine control subjects matched for age and sex were studied. The anatomy of the main pulmonary artery and its main branches, as well as the site of arterial anastomoses, was identified and measurements of their diameters were taken. There were no significant differences in diameters of these vessels between the patients and the control subjects. Arterial blood flows to the transplanted lung were 2.07 +/- 0.45 L/min/m2 in the group with right lung transplantation and 2.43 +/- 0.60 L/min/m2 in those with left lung transplantation compared with 1.22 +/- 0.22 L/min/m2 and 1.27 +/- 0.41 L/min/m2 in the control group, respectively. The ratio of blood flow in the transplanted and the native lungs in all patients studied was 2.8 +/- 0.83:1. The flow profile in the artery of the transplanted lung showed a wide forward flow during systole and most of diastole, whereas that of the native lung showed a narrow early systolic peak and a reverse flow in most of diastole. These differences in the volume and pattern of flow in the transplanted lung are most likely related to the relative resistance in the native and the transplanted lung and could constitute an additional index for monitoring the condition of patients with lung transplantation and help in the understanding of the physiology of the denervated pulmonary vascular bed.