Indicator dilution measurement of 5-hydroxytryptamine clearance by human lung.

A double indicator dilution method to measure 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) clearance by lungs of anesthetized patients is described. Immediately after a bolus injection of [3H]dextran and [14C]5-HT into the right atrial port of a Swan-Ganz catheter, blood from the radial artery is fractionated and the tritium and carbon-14 of each fraction is measured. The difference between the normalized curves of dextran and 5-HT vs. time reflect the extent to which 5-HT is extracted by the lung. This method gave a mean value of 61 +/- 3% (n = 10) for extraction of 5-HT, compared to 59 +/- 4% measured simultaneously by means of the pulmonary artery-left atrial gradient of 5-HT. Variations among three successive determinations in each patient made postoperatively were not statistically significant. This technique is applicable whenever Swan-Ganz and radial or brachial artery catheters are placed for routine clinical management and, therefore, may have wide application for measurement of pulmonary amine (or kinin) extraction in conscious human subjects or experimental animals. Because pulmonay clearance may be compromised by endothelial damage, 5-HT extraction measured in this manner could reflect early damage to human pulmonary endothelium--perhaps before clinical evidence of damage, such as interstitial edema and respiratory distress, is evident.