Non-hydrostatic pulmonary edema after coronary artery ligation in dogs. Protective effect of indomethacin.

Pulmonary edema which develops during acute myocardial infarction is generally believed to result solely from pulmonary microvascular hypertension. However, patient with myocardial infarction and pulmonary edema occasionally are found to have normal pulmonary wedge pressure. We report data indicating that pulmonary edema develops after coronary artery ligation despite stable microvascular pressure. Four groups of open-chest dogs were studied: (1) nine dogs with left anterior descending coronary artery ligation, (2) seven dogs with sham coronary ligation, (3) seven dogs ligated after beginning an infusion of indomethacin (5 mg/kg per hr), and (4) five dogs ligated after an infusion of the drug's vehicle was begun. Extravascular lung water and pulmonary blood volume were measured at hourly intervals during the 2 hours before and after coronary ligation or sham ligation. Gravimetric lung water was measured immediately thereafter. Changes of net pulmonary intravascular driving force (the difference of microva...