Abstract
Abstract
Increased intracranial pressure may result in the Cushing response. We applied a short pulse of pressure to the cranial cavity of anesthetized cats which were intubated, curarized, ventilated, and the cranium exposed to an 80-to 100-msec pulse of pressure at 5.3 atm. The following significant increases developed: Intracranial pressure rose from 7.4 ± 1.5 to 150.6 ± 19.4 mm Hg, systolic arterial peak pressure from 130.7 ± 8.1 to 299.0 ± 11.4, pulmonary peak pressure from 18.9 ± 1.9 to 42.9 ± 4.9. Alveolar lavage protein in controls was 6.7 ± 0.4 mg/g lung compared to 11.9 ± 2.0 in the experimental group. Extravascular lung water/dry weight ratios increased from 3.36 ± 0.04 in controls to 3.51 ± 0.09 but varied inversely with pulmonary systolic peak pressures (r × −0.59). These results showed that a pulse of pressure applied to the cranium of cats produced lung edema which was inversely related to pulmonary artery pressures.
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