Pulmonary hypertension induced by repeated pulmonary inflammation in the rat.

The effect of repeated lung inflammation on the pulmonary vascular bed was studied in rats. Nonbacterial lung inflammation was induced by repeated carrageenan instillations into the lungs. Three days after the single carrageenan injection, the mean pulmonary arterial blood pressure was only slightly raised [16.3 +/- 0.6 (mean +/- SE) Torr in controls and 19.5 +/- 0.5 Torr in rats with lung inflammation, P less than 0.001]. A substantial pulmonary hypertension was found in rats 3 days after the sixth lung inflammation (24.6 +/- 1 Torr). In this group, arterial hypoxemia, hypercapnia, and right-heart hypertrophy were found. In the 14th day of recovery after the last injection of carrageenan, the mean pulmonary artery blood pressure decreased (18.5 +/- 0.9 Torr) but remained higher than in the control group. There was no difference in cardiac output measured by dye-dilution technique between the experimental and control groups. After repeated inflammation, the media of distal pulmonary vessels thickened and the number of pulmonary arterioles with distinct media increased.