Patterns of normal pulmonary venous flow in man.

Abstract

Although pressures in the left atrium and pulmonary veins in normal hearts and in diseased states have been extensively measured in man by cardiac catheterization techniques, knowledge of the patterns of flow in the pulmonary veins is almost entirely lacking. I have utilized a radiological method, the technique of wedged pulmonary angiography, to study the patterns of flow velocity in the pulmonary veins of man in the normal pulmonary circulation. The method used, wedged pulmonary angiography, has previously been described in detail (Raphael and Steiner, 1967). Water-soluble contrast medium is forced through the pulmonary capillary bed from a cardiac catheter which has been passed through the systemic venous system and right heart into a wedge position in a right lower lobe pulmonary artery. The vascular arrangement of the lung consists of discrete “vascular lobules” (Jacobson, 1963). Therefore, the contrast medium is channelled into the draining vein of the injected vascular lobule in high concentration ...