Relationship between regional lung volume and regional pulmonary vascular resistance

We have examined the relationship between regional pulmonary vascular resistance (PVRr) and regional lung volume (VLr) to determine whether the decrease in blood flow in the dependent lung (zone 4) was related to lung volume. Regional blood flow (Qr) was measured with radiolabeled macroaggregates at functional residual capacity (FRC) and at transpulmonary pressure of 10 cmH2O (PL10) in 10 anesthetized supine dogs. VLr was determined at FRC by measuring lung density in frozen lung slices and was calculated at PL10 using each dog's pressure-volume curve. We found that when PVRr was expressed as a function of VLr there was not a single relationship between the two. Instead we found two separate U-shaped curves, one at FRC and one at PL10 indicating that the increased vascular resistance at the lung base remained when the lung volume was made uniform by inflation to PL10. This suggests that there is no simple relationship between VLr and PVRr.