Interaction of pulmonary and systemic hypertension. An experimental study.

The interaction of systemic and pulmonary experimental hypertension was studied in rats exposed to chronic hypoxia and to the Goldblatt procedure both separately and simultaneously. The systemic hypertensive effect of the Goldblatt procedure was unaffected by concomitant hypoxia. Chronic hypoxia caused a similar pulmonary pressor response in non-treated rats and in Goldblatt-hypertensive rats. Pulmonary arterial pressure was found to be elevated in renal hypertensive, nonhypoxic rats. Faced with a similar relative increase in pressure load, the right ventricle is more prone to develop hypertrophy than the left one.