Regional lung function in patients with mitral stenosis
Pain, M.C.; Bucens, D.; Cade, J.F.; Sloman, J.G.
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Medicine 2(3): 228-234
1972
ISSN/ISBN: 0004-8291 PMID: 4508244 Document Number: 49096
The regional distribution of pulmonary ventilation and blood flow was assessed using radioactive xenon in twenty-three patients with mitral stenosis. It was found that increasing left atrial hypertension was significantly associated with a reversal of the normal blood flow distribution pattern, and that, except in patients with airways obstruction, the gradient of pulmonary blood flow distribution could be used to estimate left atrial pressure. Ventilation distribution was not necessarily abnormal in the presence of left atrial hypertension and there was no indication that the topographical ventilation/blood flow relationships bore any relation to the degree of arterial oxygenation. It is suggested that regional pulmonary blood flow estimations, which are pain-less and readily repeatable, will find a useful role in the assessment and follow up of patients with mitral stenosis.