Localized multiple minute pulmonary embolism and breathing

Abstract

During continuous spirometric recording of breathing, 75–μ glass bead emboli were delivered selectively to single lungs or lung lobes while the remaining lung areas were maintained functionally intact and free of emboli. Postmortem digestion of the lungs revealed the distribution of the emboli and demonstrated complete localization within single lungs or lobes in 12 of 16 experiments. In all instances the frequency of breathing increased and tidal air decreased in a pattern indistinguishable from that attending bilateral multiple minute pulmonary embolism. These effects were abolished by vagotomy but survived inhalation of pure oxygen. Comparison of the quantitative relationship between emboli dose and magnitude of response in localized with that in generalized pulmonary embolization suggests that, within limits, the intensity of the tachypnea is determined by the number of emboli injected regardless of the identity of the gross lung area in which they lodge or the degree of their concentration or dispersion within areas in which they lodge and seems not to favor associated hemodynamic factors as the agency initiating the reflex. Submitted on January 3, 1961

Ventilation and haemodynamics in heart disease.

“…A possible association between this variable and ventilation was suggested by the fact that hyperventilation, usually following an apnoeic interval, was seen to accompany a rise in pulmonary arterial pressure after experimental pulmonary embolism (Dunn, 1920;Halmagyi and Colebatch, 1961). Widdicombe (1963) noted, however, that a similar reaction could occur without an increase in pulmonary artery pressure (Horres and Bernthal, 1961), and De Bono and Gazetopoulos (1964) have shown in an experimental study in dogs that when 20 per cent saline is injected rapidly into the pulmonary artery, red cell agglutination, pulmonary hypertension, and hyperventilation quickly follow a period of apncea. When hexadimethrine bromide (polybrene) is injected, a similar degree of pulmonary hypertension is observed without an accompanying ventilatory disturbance.…”

Streptococcus sanguis-Induced Platelet Clotting in Rabbits and Hemodynamic and Cardiopulmonary Consequences

“…4C). The magnitude of tachypnea in experimental animals is dependent upon the number of injected glass microspheres and independent of the anatomic region of the lungs to which the beads embolized (32,34). The responses to experimental embolism appear to be determined primarily by the magnitude of the pulmonary obstruction (45).…”

Effects of pulmonary gas embolism on circulation and respiration in the dog

“…calculated that a minimum obstruction of 10% of the pulmonary cir culation was required for tachypnea. Horres and Bernthal (1961) found that the tachpneic response was independent of the locali zation of the emboli and of their spread in the lung lobe. and Marazzini et al (1966) obtained similar results and furthermore found a relationship between the increase in Ρ ар and that in breathing frequency.…”

“…The most prominent effects of pulmonary embolism are tachypnea, polypnea, dyspnea, increased airway resistance, decreased compliance of the lung, and arterial hypoxemia (Behnke et al, 1935(Behnke et al, /1936Bernthal et al, 1961;Derks and Peters, 1974;Dick, 1939;Goodwin and Harmel, 1949;Halmagyi et al, 1963;Hirose et al, 1973;Horres and Bernthal, 1961;Khan et al, 1972;Levy et al, 1963;Marazzini et al, 1966;Megibow et al, 1942;Mills et al, 1969;Nadel et al, 1964;Sasahara et al, 1967;Whitteridge, 1950;Williams, 1956;Wolffe and Robertson, 1935) . The changes in ventilation and lung mechanics during pulmonary embolism may be induced by a stimulation of lung receptors (irritant receptors).…”