Perfusion heterogeneity in the pulmonary acinus

There is little information on the distribution of acinar perfusion because it is difficult to resolve blood flow within such small regions. We hypothesized that the known heterogeneity of arteriolar blood flow and capillary blood flow would result in heterogeneous acinar perfusion. To test this hypothesis, the passage of fluorescent dye boluses through the subpleural microcirculation of isolated dog lobes was videotaped by using fluorescence microscopy. As the videotapes were replayed, dye-dilution curves were recorded from each of the tributary branches of Y-shaped venules that drained an acinus. From the dye curves, we calculated the mean appearance time of each curve. The difference in mean appearance times between venular tributary branches was small in most cases. In 43% of the observed venular branch pairs, the dye curves were essentially superimposable (the mean appearance-time difference was <5%); and in another 42%, the mean appearance-time difference between curves was 5-10%. From these results, we conclude that acinar perfusion is unexpectedly homogeneous.