Pulmonary gas exchange during acute myocardial ischaemia a study in the closed chest anaesthetized dog

The occurrence and the cause of arterial hypoxaemia were studied in spontaneously breathing dogs in which myocardial ischaemia was induced during anaesthesia. Changes in several circulatory and ventilatory variables and in parameters of gas exchange were assessed in twelve dogs in the two 1st h after the intervention; these included changes in the distribution of ventilation-perfusion ratios determined with an inert tracer gas method. Eight out of 12 dogs developed haemodynamic signs of an acute myocardial infarction after occlusion of a branch of the left coronary artery; the circulatory changes were moderate in 6 and severe in 2 animals. A drop in Pa,O2 occurred in 5 dogs. In one without significant haemodynamic changes it was largely due to a decrease in alveolar ventilation. The ventilation-perfusion ratio distribution in the other 4 dogs did not change in a consistent way; appreciable shunt circulation (6.6%) developed in one dog. Neither ventilation-perfusion mismatch nor shunt circulation contributed much to the hypoxaemia. The most consistent finding in the 5 dogs in whom Pa,O2 fell, was a drop in Pv,O2 (mean 1.3 kPa); it accounted for 86% of the drop in Pa,O2.