Location and mechanisms of pulmonary vascular volume changes

We examined the influence of changing outflow pressure, P out, on the vascular and extravascular volumes (QV and QEV, respectively, as measured by indicator dilution) and on the outflow occlusion pressures in isolated dog lung lobes perfused with constant flow. Changing P out had a substantial effect on QV, but not on QEV, whether P out was less than or greater than alveolar pressure, PA. Since QEV did not change with QV, recruitment of previously unperfused vessels did not appear to contribute substantially to the increases in QV when P out was increased. The rapid jump in P out immediately following outflow occlusion was virtually independent of the difference between PA and P out suggesting that the alveolar vessels were an important volume storage site when P out was low relative to PA. We conclude that, over a certain range of pressures, alveolar vessel volume can be controlled by venous pressure even when the change in venous pressure has little effect on arterial pressure (zone 2). Further, we conclude that in zone 3 and within the transition from zone 2 to zone 3 increases in the intralobar blood volume occurring within the alveolar vessels may not require recruitment in the sense of opening of previously unperfused vessels.