[Dynamic study of the development of edema in the organs in experimental burn trauma]

Proton magnetic relaxation with measuring the time of spin-screen relaxation (T1) was used to study the time course of derangement of organ and tissue flooding after stage IIIB experimental burn of 15% body area. To examine the structures of the microcirculatory vessels, use was made of electron microscopy of the organs. The internal organs under study demonstrated a significant long-term (up to 49 days) increase in flooding: in the liver and kidneys, it occurred since the first day after burn, while in the lungs, myocardium and brain, since the 7th day. The results indicate the parallelism of the changes in the T1 and electron microscopic alterations in the histohematic barriers. Proton magnetic relaxation enables a more rapid and more convenient assay of the changes in tissue flooding as compared to the method of drying at high temperature. Therefore, it may be applied to the assessment of the efficacy of different therapeutic means.