Hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstrictor response with asymmetric oleic acid injury in the dog

The hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstrictive (HPV) response is characterized by two components: intrapulmonary blood flow redistribution and pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) augmentation. Whether both remain intact after oleic acid lung injury has not been assessed. In an asymmetric model of right lung oleic acid edema, we examined the relative magnitude of each component on the HPV response to right lung inspired hypoxia. Before oleic acid administration, right lung hypoxia decreased perfusion to the right lung from 1.41 +/- 0.12 to 1.16 +/- 0.15 L/min (p = .07), while PAP increased from 15.8 +/- 0.8 to 18.1 +/- 0.6 mm Hg (p less than .05). Regional hypoxia caused right lung pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) to increase from 480 +/- 45 to 797 +/- 114 dyne.sec/cm5 (p less than .01). After right lung injury with oleic acid, regional hypoxia decreased perfusion to the right lung from 0.91 +/- 0.11 to 0.71 +/- 0.10 L/min (p less than .05), while PAP increased from 18.8 +/- 0.8 to 21.5 +/- 1.0 mm Hg (p less than .05). With hypoxia, right lung PVR increased from 1232 +/- 260 to 1933 +/- 336 dyne.sec/cm5 (p less than .01). We conclude that the pulmonary vasoconstrictive response to inspired hypoxia persists after oleic acid lung injury, causing significant increases in PVR. Consequently, both the blood flow redistribution and the PAP augmentation components of the HPV response to inspired hypoxia remain unchanged.