Mechanisms of ventilation-perfusion mismatch and hemodynamic alterations in acute and chronic pulmonary embolism

Summary

 Studies on gas exchange in pulmonary embolism are not numerous. A few of them have been performed in experimental animals [4]. The methods employed comprise the determination of gas exchange parameters [14], including the physiologic dead space [1], and the multiple inert gas elimination technique [2, 8, 10].

Furthermore, not much effort has been made to relate topographical alterations of ventilation and blood flow, detected by external counting of radioactive tracers, to ventilation/ perfusion (V˚A/Q˚) disturbances responsible for impaired gas exchange in pulmonary embolism.

This paper reports data on pulmonary gas exchange, V˚A/Q˚ distribution by inert gas elimination, and regional lung function by ventilation and perfusion scan in human pulmonary embolism.