The use of ventilation and perfusion lung scans to document changes following experimental pulmonary embolism

Ventilation and perfusion lung scans were used to further document haemodynamic and respiratory changes following experimental pulmonary embolism. Changes in alveolar ventilation were only slightly greater in embolised areas of lung compared to unembolised areas, and neither heparin nor isoprenaline made any appreciable difference to ventilation. Perfusion scans revealed that large amounts of blood can flow around a massive pulmonary embolus and most of the increase in pulmonary blood flow following isoprenaline occurred in the non-embolised areas of the lung.