A method to study pulmonary vascular response in the conscious newborn piglet

New methods for chronic instrumentation of the newborn piglet are described, which allow continuous monitoring of not only pressures in the pulmonary artery and aorta but also in the left and right atria, pulmonary vein, as well as main branch pulmonary artery flows. Changes in pulmonary vascular tone to short-acting vasoactive agents can be recognized by redistribution of flow between lungs and localized to the precapillary vessels or pulmonary veins. Furthermore, vasoactive response in small pulmonary veins may be investigated as well as selective metabolic studies across the right lung. Methods are also described for the chronic cannulation of the neck vessels permitting repeated introduction of catheters on separate study days in the conscious piglet. The pulmonary circulation of the piglet constricts briskly to moderate hypoxemia (PaO2 = 39.2 +/- 2 Torr, 1 Torr = 133.32 Pa) with little change in cardiac output or systemic resistance. The piglet demonstrated responses to dilator and constrictor prostaglandins generally similar to the lambs and other species. None of these agents significantly affect pulmonary venous tone.