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Biomedical subjects

J T Reeves

Publications and source records attributed to J T Reeves.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

Operation Everest II: oxygen transport during exercise at extreme simulated altitude.

A decrease in maximal O2 uptake has been demonstrated with increasing altitude. However, direct measurements of individual links in the O2 transport chain at extreme altitude have not been obtained previously. In this study we examined eight healthy males, aged 21-31 yr, at rest and during steady-state exercise at sea level and the following inspired O2 pressures (PIO2): 80, 63, 49, and 43 Torr, during a 40-day simulated ascent of Mt. Everest. The subjects exercised on a cycle ergometer, and heart rate was recorded by an electrocardiograph; ventilation, O2 uptake, and CO2 output were measured by open circuit. Arterial and mixed venous blood samples were collected from indwelling radial or brachial and pulmonary arterial catheters for analysis of blood gases, O2 saturation and content, and lactate. As PIO2 decreased, maximal O2 uptake decreased from 3.98 +/- 0.20 l/min at sea level to 1.17 +/- 0.08 l/min at PIO2 43 Torr. This was associated with profound hypoxemia and hypocapnia; at 60 W of exercise at PIO2 43 Torr, arterial PO2 = 28 +/- 1 Torr and PCO2 = 11 +/- 1 Torr, with a marked reduction in mixed venous PO2 [14.8 +/- 1 (SE) Torr]. Considering the major factors responsible for transfer of O2 from the atmosphere to the tissues, the most important adaptations occurred in ventilation where a fourfold increase in alveolar ventilation was observed. Diffusion from alveolus to end-capillary blood was unchanged with altitude. The mass circulatory transport of O2 to the tissue capillaries was also unaffected by altitude except at PIO2 43 Torr where cardiac output was increased for a given O2 uptake. Diffusion from the capillary to the tissue mitochondria, reflected by mixed venous PO2, was also increased with altitude. With increasing altitude, blood lactate was progressively reduced at maximal exercise, whereas at any absolute and relative submaximal work load, blood lactate was higher. These findings suggest that although glycogenolysis may be accentuated at low work loads, it may not be maximally activated at exhaustion.

2,3-Diphosphoglycerate↗

Pulmonary vasodilation with structurally altered pulmonary vessels and pulmonary hypertension.

To evaluate pulmonary vasodilation in a structurally altered pulmonary vascular bed, we gave endothelium-dependent (acetylcholine) and endothelium-independent [sodium nitroprusside, prostaglandin I2 (PGI2)] vasodilators in vivo and to isolated lobar pulmonary arteries from neonatal calves with severe pulmonary hypertension. Acetylcholine, administered by pulmonary artery infusion, decreased pulmonary arterial pressure from 120 +/- 7 to 71 +/- 6 mmHg and total pulmonary resistance from 29.4 +/- 2.6 to 10.4 +/- 0.9 mmHg.l-1.min without changing systemic arterial pressure (90 +/- 5 mmHg). Although both sodium nitroprusside and PGI2 lowered pulmonary arterial pressure to 86 +/- 4 and 96 +/- 4 mmHg, respectively, they also decreased systemic arterial pressure to 65 +/- 4 and 74 +/- 3 mmHg, respectively. Neither sodium nitroprusside nor PGI2 was as effective as acetylcholine at lowering total pulmonary resistance (18.0 +/- 3.6 and 19.1 +/- 2.2 mmHg.l-1.min, respectively). Right-to-left cardiac shunt through the foramen ovale was decreased by acetylcholine from 1.6 +/- 0.4 to 0.1 +/- 0.2 l/min but was not changed by sodium nitroprusside or PGI2. Isolated lobar pulmonary arteries from pulmonary hypertensive calves did not relax in response to acetylcholine, whereas isolated pulmonary arteries from age-matched control calves did relax in response to acetylcholine. Control and pulmonary hypertensive lobar pulmonary arteries relaxed equally well in response to sodium nitroprusside. We concluded that acetylcholine vasodilation was impaired in vitro in isolated lobar pulmonary arteries but was enhanced in vivo in resistance pulmonary arteries in neonatal calves with pulmonary hypertension.

Acetylcholine↗

Oxygen transport to exercising leg in chronic hypoxia.

Residence at high altitude could be accompanied by adaptations that alter the mechanisms of O2 delivery to exercising muscle. Seven sea level resident males, aged 22 +/- 1 yr, performed moderate to near-maximal steady-state cycle exercise at sea level in normoxia [inspired PO2 (PIO2) 150 Torr] and acute hypobaric hypoxia (barometric pressure, 445 Torr; PIO2, 83 Torr), and after 18 days' residence on Pikes Peak (4,300 m) while breathing ambient air (PIO2, 86 Torr) and air similar to that at sea level (35% O2, PIO2, 144 Torr). In both hypoxia and normoxia, after acclimatization the femoral arterial-iliac venous O2 content difference, hemoglobin concentration, and arterial O2 content, were higher than before acclimatization, but the venous PO2 (PVO2) was unchanged. Thermodilution leg blood flow was lower but calculated arterial O2 delivery and leg VO2 similar in hypoxia after vs. before acclimatization. Mean arterial pressure (MAP) and total peripheral resistance in hypoxia were greater after, than before, acclimatization. We concluded that acclimatization did not increase O2 delivery but rather maintained delivery via increased arterial oxygenation and decreased leg blood flow. The maintenance of PVO2 and the higher MAP after acclimatization suggested matching of O2 delivery to tissue O2 demands, with vasoconstriction possibly contributing to the decreased flow.

Acclimatization↗

Current approach to treatment of primary pulmonary hypertension.

Based upon our experience with a cohort of 46 patients referred to the UCHSC from April, 1980 to April, 1987 for evaluation and treatment of PPH, we currently assess acute pulmonary vasoreactivity as defined by the patient's response to intravenous PGI2 during the initial diagnostic catheterization. A 3 to 5 day trial of high dose oral diltiazem treatment (720 mg/day maximum) is given while monitoring the patient in the clinical research center to detect significant side effects including arrhythmias, orthostatic systemic hypotension, arterial desaturation, and worsened right ventricular dysfunction. We believe it is necessary to recatheterize each patient to establish the efficacy of calcium antagonist treatment prior to discharge. Those patients who are responsive to diltiazem are discharged and followed in our pulmonary hypertension clinic. Since an occasional patient will deteriorate after several weeks of therapy, repeat right heart catheterization after 8 weeks of treatment is used to determine which patients should be continued on diltiazem for chronic therapy. Approximately 30 percent of our patients with PPH have been improved on diltiazem treatment. Most patients who have a good response to treatment after eight weeks continue to benefit from long-term treatment. It appears that the response to an acute infusion of PGI2 is useful in safely identifying those PPH patients who are likely to benefit from vasodilator therapy. Debilitated patients who are unresponsive to PGI2 and vasodilator therapy are considered potential candidates for cardiopulmonary transplantation.

Administration, Oral↗

Vascular remodeling in neonatal pulmonary hypertension. Role of the smooth muscle cell.

We suggest that hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension in the newborn calf is an attractive model for studying the mechanisms underlying alterations in extracellular matrix accumulation which occur in pulmonary vascular disease. Our data support a model (Fig 7) in which the SMC, perhaps as a result of hypoxic and/or pressure-induced vessel wall injury, becomes phenotypically altered. This phenotypically altered SMC generates a factor, termed smooth muscle derived extracellular matrix factor (SMEF), and possibly other factors. SMEF, in turn, stimulates or induces elastin and collagen synthesis in fibroblasts and endothelial cells. SMEF, or an associated activity derived from phenotypically altered smooth muscle cells, also induces elastin receptor expression on the cell surface and affects the chemotactic responsiveness of vascular cells. Thus, the SMC may be able to affect both the secretory and responsive properties of cell types in the vascular wall. The SMC may be critical in the vascular remodeling in pulmonary hypertension. The possible autocrine or paracrine alteration of cellular phenotypes by smooth muscle-derived mediators provides an important new direction for future research into molecular and cellular mechanisms of connective tissue regulation in diseased vessels.

Altitude↗

Propranolol blocks metabolic rate increase but not ventilatory acclimatization to 4300 m.

Previously, we found resting metabolic rate increased at high altitude but the mechanism and consequences of this increase were unclear. We sought to test the role of beta-sympathetic activation for increasing metabolic rate and the contribution of an increase in metabolic rate to raising total ventilation at altitude. Following baseline studies at sea level, two groups of six healthy male subjects received either placebo or propranolol (80 mg/8 h) for 3 days prior to ascent to Pikes Peak (4300 m) where treatment was continued for 15 days. O2 consumption increased in placebo-treated subjects with a rise of 20 +/- 5% (X +/- SEM) on day 1 and no change 0 +/- 7% in propranolol-treated subjects (difference between groups, P less than 0.05). The increase in total ventilation upon ascent was 28 +/- 2% in the placebo group vs 9 +/- 7% in the propranolol group (P less than 0.05) and was correlated with metabolic rate in individual subjects. Decreasing end-tidal PCO2, taken as an index of ventilatory acclimatization, was similar in both groups. Thus, beta-sympathetic activation appears to increase metabolic rate upon ascent to high altitude and lead to a proportionate elevation in total ventilation but does not alter ventilatory acclimatization.

Acclimatization↗

Decreased pulmonary vascular responsiveness in rats raised on an essential fatty acid deficient diet.

Leukotriene C4 is produced during hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction and leukotriene inhibitors preferentially inhibit the hypoxic pressor response in rats. If lipoxygenase products are important in hypoxic vasoconstriction, then an animal deficient in arachidonic acid should have a blunted hypoxic pressor response. We investigated if vascular responsiveness was decreased in vascular rings and isolated perfused lungs from rats raised on an essential fatty acid deficient diet (EFAD) compared to rats raised on a normal diet. Rats raised on the EFAD diet had decreased esterified plasma arachidonic acid and increased 5-, 8-, 11-eicosatrienoic acid compared to rats raised on the normal diet (control). Compared to the time matched responses in control isolated perfused lungs the pressor responses to angiotensin II and alveolar hypoxia were blunted in lungs from the arachidonate deficient rats. This decreased pulmonary vascular responsiveness was not affected by the addition of indomethacin or arachidonic acid to the lung perfusate. Similarly, the pulmonary artery rings from arachidonate deficient rats demonstrated decreased reactivity to norepinephrine compared to rings from control rats. In contrast, the tension increases to norepinephrine were greater in aortic rings from the arachidonate deficient rats compared to control. Stimulated lung tissue from the arachidonate deficient animals produced less slow reacting substance and platelet activating factor like material but the same amount of 6-keto-PGF1 alpha and TXB2 compared to control lungs. Thus there is an association between altered vascular responsiveness and impairment of stimulated production of slow reacting substance and platelet activating factor like material in rats raised on an EFAD diet.

Animals↗

Oxygen transport during exercise at extreme altitude: Operation Everest II.

Eight male volunteers had rest and exercise measurement to determine the mechanisms of oxygen transport during a 40-day chamber decompression simulating high-altitude exposure equivalent to the summit of Mt Everest. Five subjects completing the study decreased their maximum oxygen uptake by 72%. During maximal or near-maximal exercise, arterial PCO2 fell as low as 8 mm Hg, defending the alveolar PO2 and confirming marked hyperventilation. Alveolar-arterial diffusion did not improve and V/Q worsened. Cardiac function was unimpaired. Circulatory oxygen transport resembled that at sea level. The decrease in mixed venous PO2 was not enough to preserve fractional oxygen utilization "on the summit." The PO2 gradients from atmosphere to alveolus, alveolus to arterial blood, arterial to venous blood, and from venous (capillary) blood to mitochondria all decreased. However, hyperventilation appeared to be the primary adaptation that defended the maximum oxygen uptake.

Adult↗

Breathing pattern in hypoxic exposures of varying duration.

The relative contributions of breathing frequency and tidal volume to the increase in ventilation during acute or prolonged exposure to hypoxia is uncertain. We examined the changes in breathing pattern during hypoxic exposures lasting minutes, hours, and days using data from previous studies. Increased tidal volume accounted for the increased ventilation during 7-10 and 30 min of isocapnic and poikilocapnic (no CO2 added) hypoxic exposures as well as during 7 h of poikilocapnic hypobaric hypoxia (4,800 m). Tidal volume was also a greater overall contributor than frequency to increased ventilation in sea-level residents during 3 days of isocapnic hypobaric hypoxia (4,100-4,600 m) and in Denver (1,600 m) residents during 5 days on Pikes Peak (4,300 m). In sea-level residents during 3 days of poikilocapnic hypobaric hypoxia (3,600-4,300 m) and during 7-8 days on Pikes Peak, increased frequency accounted for the rise in ventilation. Tidal volume thus contributed more than frequency to increasing ventilation during brief hypoxia, whereas the contribution of frequency was increased in prolonged hypoxia involving a 4,300-m altitude ascent and hypocapnia.

Adult↗

Neither anticoagulant nor nonanticoagulant heparin affects monocrotaline lung injury.

The administration of monocrotaline to rats causes pulmonary vascular leak within 1 wk followed in 2-3 wk by perivascular proliferation and fatal pulmonary hypertension. Possibly blocking the proliferation might block the pulmonary hypertension, providing insight into its mechanism. Because heparin, given as an antiproliferative agent, reduced hypoxic pulmonary hypertension in mice, it might also block monocrotaline-induced pulmonary hypertension. Alternatively, anticoagulation could worsen the lung injury. We found that heparin (300 and 600 U/kg sc twice daily) inhibited clotting in rats given monocrotaline but did not change the vascular leak, the right ventricular pressure, the right ventricular hypertrophy, the increased medial thickness of the pulmonary arterioles, or the production of a slow-reacting substance of anaphylaxis-like material by the lungs. A nonanticoagulant heparin fragment (2 mg/kg sc twice daily), given to avoid anticoagulation also did not influence the monocrotaline injury. Thus neither anticoagulant nor nonanticoagulant heparin either attenuated or worsened the measured effects of monocrotaline.

Animals↗

Severe pulmonary hypertension and arterial adventitial changes in newborn calves at 4,300 m.

Some human newborns have a syndrome characterized by irreversible pulmonary hypertension and severe hypoxemia and by medial hypertrophy and adventitial thickening of pulmonary arteries. We considered that newborn calves made severely hypoxic might reproduce features of the human disease. When 2-day-old calves were placed at 4,300 m simulated altitude, pulmonary arterial pressure was increased and could be reversed by 100% O2. However, after 2 wk at 4,300 m, pulmonary arterial pressures were suprasystemic and there was right-to-left shunting probably through the foramen ovale and a patent but restrictive ductus arteriosus. Suprasystemic pulmonary pressure and hypoxemia persisted with 100% O2 breathing. Morphometrical examination of the lung arteries showed a markedly thickened adventitia with cellular proliferation and collagen and elastin deposition. There was increased medial thickness and distal muscularization of the pulmonary arteries associated with decreased luminal diameter. The rapid development of severe pulmonary hypertension and poor responsiveness to O2 was associated with increased arterial wall thickness, particularly involving the adventitia. Thus the pulmonary arterial circulation in these calves, which were placed at high altitude for 2 wk, exhibited features resembling persistent pulmonary hypertension in newborn infants.

Altitude Sickness↗

Internal carotid and vertebral arterial flow velocity in men at high altitude.

Cerebral blood flow increases at high altitude, but the mechanism of the increase and its role in adaptation to high altitude are unclear. We hypothesized that the hypoxemia at high altitude would increase cerebral blood flow, which would in turn defend O2 delivery to the brain. Noninvasive Doppler ultrasound was used to measure the flow velocities in the internal carotid and the vertebral arteries in six healthy male subjects. Within 2-4 h of arrival on Pikes Peak (4,300 m), velocities in both arteries were slightly and not significantly increased above sea-level values. By 18-44 h a peak increase of 20% was observed (combined P less than 0.025). Subsequently (days 4-12) velocities declined to values similar to those at sea level. At altitude the lowest arterial O2 saturation (SaO2) and the highest end-tidal PCO2 was observed on arrival. By day 4 and thereafter, when the flow velocities had returned toward sea-level values, hemoglobin concentration and SaO2 were increased over initial high-altitude values such that calculated O2 transport values were even higher than those at sea level. Although the cause of the failure for cerebral flow velocity to increase on arrival is not understood, the subsequent increase may act to defend brain O2 transport. With further increase in hemoglobin and SaO2 over time at high altitude, flow velocity returned to sea-level values.

Adult↗

Operation Everest II: elevated high-altitude pulmonary resistance unresponsive to oxygen.

High altitude increases pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP), but no measurements have been made in humans above 4,500 m. Eight male athletic volunteers were decompressed in a hypobaric chamber for 40 days to a barometric pressure (PB) of 240 Torr, equivalent to the summit of Mt. Everest. Serial hemodynamic measurements were made at PB 760 (sea level), 347 (6,100 m), and 282/240 Torr (7,620/8,840 m). Resting PAP and pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) increased from sea level to maximal values at PB 282 Torr from 15 +/- 0.9 to 34 +/- 3.0 mmHg and from 1.2 +/- 0.1 to 4.3 +/- 0.3 mmHg.l-1 X min, respectively. During near maximal exercise PAP increased from 33 +/- 1 mmHg at sea level to 54 +/- 2 mmHg at PB 282 Torr. Right atrial and wedge pressures were not increased with altitude. Acute 100% O2 breathing lowered cardiac output and PAP but not PVR. Systemic arterial pressure and resistance did not rise with altitude but did increase with O2 breathing, indicating systemic control differed from the lung circulation. We concluded that severe chronic hypoxia caused elevated pulmonary resistance not accompanied by right heart failure nor immediately reversed by O2 breathing.

Adult↗

Operation Everest II: preservation of cardiac function at extreme altitude.

Hypoxia at high altitude could depress cardiac function and decrease exercise capacity. If so, impaired cardiac function should occur with the extreme, chronic hypoxemia of the 40-day simulated climb of Mt. Everest (8,840 m, barometric pressure of 240 Torr, inspiratory O2 pressure of 43 Torr). In the five of eight subjects having resting and exercise measurements at the barometric pressures of 760 Torr (sea level), 347 Torr (6,100 m), 282 Torr (7,620 m), and 240 Torr, heart rate for a given O2 uptake was higher with more severe hypoxia. Slight (6 beats/min) slowing of the heart rate occurred only during exercise at the lowest barometric pressure when arterial blood O2 saturations were less than 50%. O2 breathing reversed hypoxemia but never increased heart rate, suggesting that hypoxic depression of rate, if present, was slight. For a given O2 uptake, cardiac output was maintained. The decrease in stroke volume appeared to reflect decreased ventricular filling (i.e., decreased right atrial and wedge pressures). O2 breathing did not increase stroke volume for a given filling pressure. We concluded that extreme, chronic hypoxemia caused little or no impairment of cardiac rate and pump functions.

Adult↗

Operation Everest II: man at extreme altitude.

Rapid ascent to high altitude may cause serious problems for climbers, skiers, and aviators. In contrast, gradual ascent enables humans to function where the unacclimatized cannot. To examine changes in the O2 transport system that produce acclimatization, eight men were taken in a decompression chamber (without other stresses experienced on high mountains) to a simulated altitude of 8,840 m (29,028 ft, ambient PO2 = 43 Torr) in 40 days. Maximal O2 uptake fell to 1.2 l/min, and arterial PO2 and PCO2 were 30 and 11 Torr, respectively, with arterial pH of 7.56. Many sophisticated studies were done: Swan-Ganz catheterization and inert gas diffusion studies at three altitudes showed that normal cardiac function persisted, pulmonary vascular resistance increased and at extreme altitude was not lowered by O2, and pulmonary ventilation-perfusion mismatch increased, though variably. This appears to be an important factor limiting performance at extreme altitude. This paper presents the background, general approach, and a summary of major observations reported in detail in other papers.

Acclimatization↗

Effects of shear stress on adhesive interaction between neutrophils and cultured endothelial cells.

The effect of hydrodynamic shear stress on the adhesive interaction between neutrophils and endothelial cells in vitro was investigated using an apparatus similar to a cone-in-plate viscometer. Isolated bovine neutrophils were labeled with 111In and incubated with monolayers of cultured bovine pulmonary arterial endothelial cells in the presence of different degrees of shear stress. Physiologically relevant shear (less than 2 dyn/cm2) was associated with marked decrease in neutrophil adherence. Stimulation with 10% bovine zymosan-activated plasma increased adherence under static conditions but failed to increase adherence conducted during the application of shear stress. Inhibition of endothelial cell prostacyclin production by meclofenamate or aspirin failed to alter the response to shear. Incubation of neutrophils under static conditions for 10, but not 5, min however, markedly enhanced subsequent resistance to shear, suggesting that a time-dependent reaction between neutrophil and endothelial cell was required to induce an increase in the strength of adherence. Analysis of neutrophil migration underneath the monolayer indicated that such migration in no way accounted for resistance to shear, particularly since shear resistance was enhanced on serum-coated plastic as well as endothelial cells. We conclude that hemodynamic factors may play an important role in modulating neutrophil adherence to endothelium in both normal and inflammatory states.

6-Ketoprostaglandin F1 alpha↗

Operation Everest II: pulmonary gas exchange during a simulated ascent of Mt. Everest.

Eight normal subjects were decompressed to barometric pressure (PB) = 240 Torr over 40 days. The ventilation-perfusion (VA/Q) distribution was estimated at rest and during exercise [up to 80-90% maximal O2 uptake (VO2 max)] by the multiple inert gas elimination technique at sea level and PB = 428, 347, 282, and 240 Torr. The dispersion of the blood flow distribution increased by 64% from rest to 281 W, at both sea level and at PB = 428 Torr (heaviest exercise 215 W). At PB = 347 Torr, the increase was 79% (rest to 159 W); at PB = 282 Torr, the increase was 112% (108 W); and at PB = 240 Torr, the increase was 9% (60 W). There was no significant correlation between the dispersion and cardiac output, ventilation, or pulmonary arterial wedge pressure, but there was a correlation between the dispersion and mean pulmonary arterial pressure (r = 0.49, P = 0.02). When abnormal, the VA/Q pattern generally had perfusion in lung units of zero or near zero VA/Q combined with units of normal VA/Q. Alveolar-end-capillary diffusion limitation of O2 uptake (VO2) was observed at VO2 greater than 3 l/min at sea level, greater than 1-2 l/min VO2 at PB = 428 and 347 Torr, and at higher altitudes, at VO2 less than or equal to 1 l/min. These results show variable but increasing VA/Q mismatch with long-term exposure to both altitude and exercise. The VA/Q pattern and relationship to pulmonary arterial pressure are both compatible with alveolar interstitial edema as the primary cause of inequality.

Acclimatization↗