Related Experiment Videos
Bronchial arterial response to contrast medium
E M Baile1, J R Mayo, F Sasaki
1University of British Columbia Pulmonary Research Laboratory, St. Paul's Hospital, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Rationale And Objectives:
Contrast agents have been shown to produce vasodilatory responses in several vascular beds. To our knowledge, however, their effect on the bronchial vasculature has not been examined. Clinically, contrast-induced bronchial vasodilation could potentially exacerbate life-threatening pulmonary hemorrhage during bronchial angiography for hemoptysis. In the current study, we systematically measured the bronchial vasodilatory response to diatrizoate meglumine 66% and diatrizoate sodium 10% (MD-76) and examined whether vasodilation would be mediated by nitric oxide (NO).
Methods:
We measured bronchial blood flow in seven anesthetized, ventilated, open-chested sheep using an ultrasonic flow probe placed around the bronchial artery. Bronchial blood flow was recorded before and after injection of 2 ml MD-76 into the bronchial artery. The protocol was repeated after 20 min infusion of N omega-nitro-L-arginine (L-NA; 10(-2) mol/l), an NO-synthase inhibitor, into the bronchial artery.
Results:
There was a 45 +/- 8 ml/min increase (p < .01) in bronchial blood flow after injection of MD-76, which was reduced to 20 +/- 6 ml/min (p < .01) after infusion of L-NA.
Conclusion:
Bronchial arterial injection of MD-76 results in a consistent increase in bronchial blood flow that is mediated partly by NO.