Early recovery from hypoxic pulmonary hypertension: a structural and functional study.

This study follows the recovery during 1 mo in ambient air from the hemodynamic and structural changes found in Sprague-Dawley rats after 2 wk of hypobaric hypoxia. In the time studied there is some degree of recovery for all features analyzed. The only features that completely return to normal are hematocrit level, new muscle in arteries at alveolar wall level, medial thickness of intra-acinar arteries, and density of filled arteries. For some features much of the recovery is early or rapid; for other features the recovery is late or slow. The rapid changes, occurring within two days of removal from hypoxia, include a fall in pulmonary arterial pressure (36.6 +/- 1.5 to 30.1 +/- 1.1 mmHg), a drop in hematocrit (61.1 +/- 1.3 to 53.0 +/- 1.0%), and the disappearance of new muscle, as judged by light microscopy from many arteries at alveolar wall (39.5 +/- 4.9 to 17.7 +/- 4.0%) and alveolar duct (85.9 +/- 2.5 to 68.2 +/- 3.4%) levels. The slow recovery includes the decrease in right ventricular and arterial medial hypertrophy, disappearance of muscle from respiratory bronchiolar arteries, reduction in lung volume, and increased density of filled arteries. These slow changes are probably the response to a fall in pulmonary arterial pressure.