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Biomedical subjects

C A Dawson

Publications and source records attributed to C A Dawson.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Lung tolerance to hyperthermia by in vivo perfusion.

In vivo isolated lung perfusion is a novel technique for targeting anticancer therapy to the lung while avoiding systemic toxicity as normal lung toxicity from the antitumour therapy becomes the limiting factor. This study was performed to investigate the effects of hyperthermia on lung function in an intact animal model in which both acute and subacute toxicity could be monitored. Dogs underwent in vivo isolated lung perfusion. A control group was perfused to a lung temperature of 37 degrees C (group 1) and two other groups were treated in an identical manner except that the perfusion temperature was 43 degrees-44.8 degrees C in group 2 and greater than 45 degrees C in group 3. An assessment of lung injury was performed pre-perfusion, immediately post-perfusion and 2 weeks post-perfusion by measurement of extravascular lung water (Qev), serotonin uptake and wet weight to dry weight ratio. Our findings showed that the lung was tolerant to hyperthermia up to about 44 degrees C for 1 h. Analysis of 4 animals who survived perfusion above 3/44.0 degrees C showed a highly significant decrease in serotonin uptake between pre- and post-perfusion values (82.4 +/- 1.2 vs 40.4 +/- 3.9, P less than 0.02); at 2 weeks serotonin uptake had returned to normal in all 3 dogs. Fulminating pulmonary oedema developed at temperatures over 45 degrees C. Serotonin uptake may be a sensitive predictor of thermal lung injury.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Use of blue dextran for measuring changes in perfused vascular surface area in lungs.

We investigated the uptake and efflux of Blue Dextran in the isolated perfused rabbit lung. Blue Dextran is a high-molecular-weight glucose polymer (original mol wt 2 x 10(6) g/mol) containing covalently bonded Reactive Blue 2 dye (approximately mmol/g dextran). This blue dye is known for its high binding affinity to a wide variety of proteins, with a particularly high affinity for serum albumin. In isolated rabbit lungs perfused with a protein-free perfusate, both bolus injection and recirculation of Blue Dextran revealed a rapid saturable uptake. Once the lungs were loaded with Blue Dextran, efflux of the Blue Dextran accumulated in the lungs could be induced by addition of bovine serum albumin (BSA) to the recirculating perfusate. The amount of BSA-induced efflux of Blue Dextran from the lung was independent of perfusate flow. When the left pulmonary artery was ligated after the lungs had been loaded with Blue Dextran, the dye-induced BSA efflux was only about 50% of normal. Release of the ligature so that both lungs were perfused resulted in efflux of the remaining Blue Dextran. The combination of high airway pressure and low flow also reduced the dye efflux, and the effect was reversed by reducing the airway pressure. With the assumption that the high average molecular weight of Blue Dextran confines this molecule to interaction with proteins on the vascular surface, the results of this study suggest that Blue Dextran uptake and its BSA-induced efflux are proportional to the perfused vascular surface area in the lung.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

An angiographic method for in vivo study of arteries of the circle of Willis in small animals.

An X-ray imaging technique designed to allow sequential diameter measurements of the cerebral vessels in intact, anesthetized small animals under relatively physiological conditions is described. The ferret and the rabbit were chosen as potentially useful animal models for studying the cerebrovascular system because of the advantageous anatomic characteristics of these relatively small species. A commercially available and relatively inexpensive X-ray imaging system with a small focal spot provides good spatial resolution. An external carotid perfusion loop allows for 1) the introduction of low-osmolality contrast medium without changing perfusion pressure or flow and 2) measurement of internal carotid and circle of Willis pressures at the same time that the vessel images are obtained. In the present study, detection of small changes in the diameters of the small vessels is facilitated by an algorithm utilizing the X-ray absorption by the entire vessel cross section. This avoids some of the problems of edge detection for small cylindrical vessels wherein the contrast is less than optimal and diminishes as the vessel perimeter is approached.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Use of diazepam for interpreting changes in extravascular lung water.

Estimates of extravascular lung water volume (Qew) by use of the multiple indicator-dilution method with a hydrophilic indicator such as tritiated water, along with a vascular reference indicator, depend not only on tissue hydration but also on tissue perfusion. Separation of these effects might be facilitated if both hydrophilic and lipophilic indicators were used, with the assumption that the extravascular volume accessible to the lipophilic indicator would be independent of hydration. We found that in isolated perfused dog lung lobes the extravascular volume accessible to the lipophilic amine [14C]diazepam (Qed) was inversely proportional to the albumin concentration of the perfusate. This suggested that while the bolus was in the lungs, only a small fraction of the diazepam was in the aqueous phase of either lung tissue or perfusate. Changing the flow rate over a fairly wide range had little influence on the pattern of the tritiated water or [14C]diazepam effluent concentration curves when time was normalized to the lobar mean transit time. This suggests that the association of the diazepam with both the plasma albumin and the lipoid fraction of the tissue was in very rapid equilibrium on the time scale of a single pass through the lung lobe and that there was little barrier to its diffusion to and from the tissue. When the extravascular water volume was increased by either raising the hydrostatic pressure or instilling saline into the airways, both Qew and Qew/Qed increased.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Albumins↗
PubMed1992

Influence of flow on pulmonary vascular surface area inferred from blue dextran efflux data.

Blue dextran (BD), which binds to proteins on the pulmonary endothelial surface and to plasma albumin, was used in isolated perfused dog lung lobe experiments to address the question: do changes in perfusate flow rate cause changes in perfused vascular surface area? When BD was added to a protein-free perfusate under zone 3 conditions at a high flow rate (15.8 +/- 0.7 ml/s), it was adsorbed by the endothelial surface. Then by changing the perfusate entering the lobe to an albumin-containing perfusate, the BD was eluted from the perfused surface by competitive binding to the perfusate albumin. The amount of BD eluted was measured in three experiments. In experiment 1, elution of the BD by the perfusate albumin was initiated after a balloon had been inflated within the lobar arterial tree to occlude a portion of the lobar vascular bed containing BD. Then the balloon was deflated, permitting albumin perfusate to perfuse the previously occluded part of the lobe. In experiment 2, BD elution began at a flow rate of 3 +/- 0.1 ml/s under zone 3 conditions and continued after the high-flow zone 3 conditions were reestablished. In experiment 3, the BD elution began at a flow rate of 4.2 +/- 0.7 ml/s under zone 2 conditions and continued after the high-flow zone 3 conditions were reestablished. Balloon inflation reduced the amount of BD recovered by 43%, demonstrating that a decrease in perfused vascular surface area could decrease BD recovery.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Animals↗
PubMed1992

A fractal continuum model of the pulmonary arterial tree.

The extant morphometric data from the intrapulmonary arteries of dog, human, and cat lungs produce graphs of the log of the vessel number, (N) or length (l) in each level vs. the log of the mean diameter (D) in each level that are sufficiently linear to suggest that a scale-independent self-similar or fractal structure may underlie the observed relationships. These data can be correlated by the following formulas: Nj = a1Dj-beta 1, and lj = a2Dj beta 2, where j denotes the level (order or generation) number measured from the largest vessel at the entrance to the arterial tree to the smallest vessel at the entrance to the capillary bed. With the hemodynamic resistance (R) represented by Rj = 128 microliterj/(Nj pi Dj4) and the vascular volume (Q) by Qj = Nj pi Dj2lj/4, the continuous cumulative distribution of vascular resistance (Rcum) vs. cumulative vascular volume (Qcum) (where Rcum and Qcum represent the total resistance or volume, respectively, upstream from the jth level) can be calculated from [formula: see text] where r = Dj/Dj+1 is a constant independent of j. Analogous equations are developed for the inertance and compliance distributions, providing simple formulas to represent the hemodynamic consequences of the pulmonary arterial tree structure.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

A method for analysis of pulmonary arterial and venous occlusion data.

Recently, we presented a compartmental model of the pulmonary vascular resistance (R) and compliance (C) distribution with the configuration C1R1C2R2C3 (J. Appl. Physiol. 70: 2126-2136, 1991). This model was used to interpret the pressure vs. time data obtained after the sudden occlusion of the arterial inflow (AO), venous outflow (VO), or both inflow and outflow (DO) from an isolated dog lung lobe. In the present study, we present a new approach to the data analysis in terms of this model that is relatively simple to carry out and more robust. The data used to estimate the R's and C's are the steady-state arterial [Pa(0)] and venous [Pv(0)] pressures, the flow rate (Q), the area (A2) encompassed by Pa(t) after AO and the equilibrium pressure (Pd) after DO, and the average slope (m) of the Pa(t) and Pv(t) curves after VO. The following formulas can then be used to calculate the 2 R's and 3 C's: [Pa(0) - Pv(0)]/Q = R1 + R2 = RT, R1C1 congruent to to A2/[Pa(0) - Pd], R1 congruent to [Pa(0) - Pd]/Q, Q/m = C1 + C2 + C3 = CT, and C2 = CT - (RTC1/R2).

Animals↗
PubMed1992

A simple distensible vessel model for interpreting pulmonary vascular pressure-flow curves.

A simple distensible vessel model was developed for the purpose of interpreting the vascular pressure-flow curve in the zone 3 lung. The model-governing equation has two parameters: R0, representing the hemodynamic resistance of the undistended pulmonary vascular bed, and alpha, representing the distensibility of the resistance vessels. To evaluate the model, the governing equation was used in a nonlinear regression analysis of the pressure-flow data from isolated dog lung lobes. The dependency of the estimates of the model parameters in response to changes in perfusate viscosity (hematocrit) was determined. The distensible vessel model provided reasonable fits to the data, and, as predicted, R0, but not alpha, was hematocrit dependent. On the other hand, the traditional linear ohmic-Starling resistor model fit to the same pressure-flow data generally provided fits approaching those of the distensibility model only if the pressure intercept (the mean "critical closing pressure") was allowed to increase with hematocrit. Because the ohmic-Starling resistor concept does not predict a hematocrit dependence of the critical closing pressure, this latter observation is evidence that the distensible vessel model offers an alternative conceptualization of the pulmonary circulation worthy of additional study with respect to the interpretation of experimental pressure-flow data.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Distensibility of small veins of the dog lung.

To determine the distensibility of the intrapulmonary veins (250-2,900 microns diam) of the dog lung, we obtained X-ray angiograms from isolated lung lobes over a vascular pressure range of approximately 0-30 Torr. Over this pressure range the diameter vs. pressure curves tended to flatten out at the high pressures. In the pressure range of 0-19 Torr, we characterized the vessel distensibility by alpha (the ratio of the slope, beta, of the graph of diameter vs. intravascular pressure to the intercept, Do). The average value of alpha was approximately 1.2%/Torr. There was a weak negative correlation (r = -0.32) between alpha and Do. Infusion of enough norepinephrine to produce approximately 50% increase in total lobar vascular resistance produced a decrease in Do and alpha of approximately 33 and 32%, respectively.

Angiography↗
PubMed1991

Perfusate cytochrome c reduction in isolated rabbit lungs.

The reduction of ferricytochrome c within the perfusate in isolated lung perfusion systems has been demonstrated previously. We carried out the present study 1) to determine what reducing agents might be responsible for this reduction and 2) to determine whether the cytochrome c (cyto c) reduction within the recirculating perfusion system can be accounted for by relatively stable reducing agents released into the perfusate or whether some of the reduction is dependent on short-lived agents and/or proximity to the source of the agents within the lungs. Experiments were carried out with the use of isolated rabbit lungs perfused for 1 h in a recirculating system. In one group of experiments, ferricytochrome c was included in the recirculating perfusion system. In another group, the cyto c was added to produce the same concentration in samples after they were removed from a cyto c-free recirculating system. The recirculating cyto c was reduced at a rate of approximately 1.76 mumol/h, and approximately 22% was inhibitable by superoxide dismutase. Most of the rest could be inhibited by ascorbate oxidase within the recirculating perfusate. When the ferricytochrome c was added to the samples removed from the cyto c-free perfusion system, virtually the entire cyto c reducing capacity was inhibitable by ascorbate oxidase. Although reduced glutathione did accumulate in the recirculating perfusate, the quantity was not sufficient to have an important role in the cyto c reduction. We conclude that most of the cyto c reducing capacity within the lung perfusate could be accounted for by ascorbate released from the lungs.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Distensibility of small arteries of the dog lung.

To obtain in situ measurements of the distensibility of small (100- to 1,000-microns-diam) pulmonary arterial vessels of the dog lung, X-ray angiograms were obtained from isolated lung lobes with the vascular pressure adjusted to various levels. The in situ diameter-pressure relationships were compared with the diameter-pressure relationships for small arteries that were dissected free from the lungs and cannulated with small glass pipettes for the measurement of diameter and transmural pressure. The diameter-vascular or diameter-transmural pressure curves from both in situ and cannulated vessels were sufficiently linear in the pressure range studied (0-30 Torr) that they could be characterized by linear regression to obtain estimates of D0, the diameter at zero vascular pressure, and beta, the change in diameter (micron) per Torr change in pressure. The vessel distensibility coefficient (alpha) was defined as alpha = beta/D0. The mean values of alpha were approximately 2.0 +/- 0.8%/Torr (SD) for the in situ vessels and 1.7 +/- 0.6%/Torr for the cannulated vessels, with no statistically significant difference between the two methods. The influence of vasoconstriction elicited by serotonin was evaluated in the in situ vessels. Serotonin-induced vasoconstriction caused a decrease in D0 and little change in alpha.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

An algorithm for angiographic estimation of blood vessel diameter.

This study was carried out in an attempt to develop an objective and robust method for measuring changes in the diameters of small blood vessels from X-ray angiographic images. Recognizing potential problems with edge detection methods applied to cylindrical vessels in which the contrast diminishes as the boundary is approached, we have attempted to utilize the X-ray absorbance data across the entire cross section of the vessel. Then, assuming a cylindrical geometry, the absorbance data are fit to the cylindrical absorbance function by use of nonlinear regression analysis. The method was tested and calibrated using glass tubes filled with various concentrations of contrast medium. The diameters of small pulmonary arteries were estimated by applying the method of angiograms obtained from an isolated dog lung lobe. The structure of the residuals obtained after the fitting procedure was analyzed to test the appropriateness of the model for use with images of vessels. The results suggest that this approach will have utility for systematically quantifying vessel dimensions.

Algorithms↗
PubMed1979

Pulmonary hemodynamic responses to elevated cerebral spinal fluid pressure in the dog.

To investigate the possibility that a pulmonary vasomotor reflex contributes to the pulmonary hemodynamic response to elevated cerebral spinal fluid pressure (PCSF), we studied 10 chloralose-anesthetized dogs in which the left lower lobe (LLL) perfusion was isolated to eliminate the influence of passive factors and of circulating vasoactive agents. Left lower lobe neural integrity was tested by electrically stimulating the stellate ganglion. This resulted in a 35.5% increase in lobar vascular resistance and a 29.1% increase in systemic vascular resistance. Elevating the PCSF to 137 Torr caused the systemic vascular resistance to increase 33.0%, but resulted in no change in LLL vascular resistance. In the intact right lung, this PCSF elevation resulted in increases in pulmonary artery and left atrial pressures, but no change in right lung vascular resistance. Because the neurally intact LLL did not respond to PCSF elevation and the responses of the right lung could be accounted for by passive mechanisms, we conclude that no pulmonary vascular reflex was elicited by PCSF elevation in this preparation.

Animals↗
PubMed1979

Hemodynamic responses of dog lung lobe to lobar venous occlusion.

We perfused the left lower lobe of the dog lung with constant flow. When the lobar venous outflow was occluded, the lobar venous pressure rose suddenly to a level somewhere below the arterial pressure, and then the arterial and venous pressures began to rise more slowly. A possible explanation for this response is that, when the outflow was occluded, flow through some downstream segment of the bed ceased. Because flow into the lung continued, the arteriovenous pressure difference after occlusion represents the pressure drop across some upstream segment through which the flow continued. We designated the arteriovenous pressure difference just after outflow occlusion as the upstream pressure drop. The arteriovenous pressure difference before occlusion minus the upstream pressure drop was designated the downstream pressure drop. In an attempt to better understand the meaning of the upstream and downstream pressure drops, we examined the influence of pulmonary vasoconstriction and flow direction on the size of the upstream and downstream pressure drops. We also compared these pressure drops with the pressure drops occurring upstream and downstream from the midpoint of the lobar vascular volume, using the low-viscosity bolus technique. The results indicate that changes in the upstream and downstream pressure drops, as evaluated by outflow occlusion, reflect changes in the lobar arterial and venous resistances.

Animals↗
PubMed1979

Adrenal component to pulmonary hypertension induced by elevated cerebrospinal fluid pressure.

In this study we investigated the possibility that a circulating vasoactive agent contributes to the pulmonary hypertension elicited by elevated cerebrospinal fluid pressure (PCSF) using a denervated canine left lower lung lobe (LLL) preparation that was pump perfused with mixed venous blood at constant flow and venous pressure. Raising the PCSF to an average 190 Torr resulted in a 34.3% increase in LLL inflow pressure. This response was eliminated by adrenal venous occlusion and also by alpha-blockade of the LLL. The results indicated that adrenal catecholamines were responsible for the LLL response. The passively induced elevation of left atrial pressure (Pla) that occurs in the intact animal during elevated PCSF was stimulated in the LLL by raising the outflow pressure. This maneuver attenuated the increase in LLL vascular resistance and suggested that the elevation in Pla seen in the intact animal could mask humorally mediated responses of the magnitude we observed.

Adrenal Glands↗
PubMed1979

A kinetic model of prostaglandin metabolism in the lung.

We have measured the instantaneous extraction of prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) after a single bolus injection of PGE1 and indocyanine green dye into the pulmonary artery of isolated cat lungs. The extraction ratio versus time curves exhibited a characteristic shape; at early times they were concave upward and later in time concave downward. To evaluate this date we utilized a model in which themechanism of PGE1 uptake is saturable and follows Michaelis-Menten kinetics. The model assumes heterogeneous perfusion of the exchanging region of the lung and can be solved by regression analysis to obtain Km and Vmax from the data collected from a single bolus injection. The results indicate that the shape of the extraction ratio curve manifests the influence of nonlinear uptake and heterogeneous perfusion and that the kinetic parameters may be calculated from the data obtained after a single bolus injection ofPGE1.

Animals↗
PubMed1979

Lung inflation and longitudinal distribution of pulmonary vascular resistance during hypoxia.

Using the low-viscosity bolus method, we examined the influence of lung inflation on the longitudinal distribution of vascular resistance during hypoxia in isolated cat lungs. During hypoxia, increasing transpulmonary pressure decreased vascular resistance but did not change the volume into the lung at which the maximum local resistance was located. This was in contrast to the normoxic situation in which inflation caused an increase in resistance over much of the transpulmonary pressure range studied and moved the maximum local resistance downstream. These results indicate that during hypoxia the major increase in resistance was in extra-alveolar vessels and that distension of these vessels by lung inflation decreased the magnitude of the pressor response. The increase in resistance in alveolar vessels, which occurred on inflation, was similar during control and hypoxic conditions but was a smaller part of the total resistance during hypoxia because of the much larger extra-alveolar vessel resistance.

Animals↗