Assessment of lung water by magnetic resonance in three types of pulmonary edema

Pulmonary edema was produced in nine mongrel dogs by: (a) saline lavage; (b) intravenous injection of oleic acid; and (c) intravenous injection of propranolol followed by ureteral ligation. The resulting effect could be characterized by varying the protein concentration in the pulmonary edema fluid. After induction, all dogs were killed and 20 samples from each passively deflated lung were obtained. Proton T1 and T2 values were measured on a Praxis II NMR spectrometer operated at 10.7 MHz and 37 degrees C. The water content of all samples was determined gravimetrically. Correlation between T1 or T2 measured in vitro and the ratio of wet to dry weight was highly significant (r greater than 0.95, P less than 0.001) in each pathological state. Regression curves indicate that although all three types of pulmonary edema can be characterized by slightly different slopes, the differences are statistically insignificant. Moreover, the slopes of previous studies, when recast in the same format, are very similar to our findings despite the use of different magnetic field strengths and different animal models. This study indicates that quantitation of pulmonary edema is possible, but in vitro measurements do not give useful information for characterizing the etiology of pulmonary edema.