title: Pulmonary fat embolism in rabbits induced by forced immobilization.
abstract: In the study reported here, rabbits were used to develop an experimental model for inducing pulmonary fat embolism by forced immobilization. The emboli were quantitated by a computerized system. The activity of lipoprotein lipase in post-heparin plasma (PHP-LPL) and concentrations of free fatty acids (FFA) were measured. Also, blood gases were analyzed and pulmonary morphology and ultrastructure were observed. Forced immobilization for 5 hours was found to induce pulmonary embolism. This was accompanied by elevation of PHP-LPL and FFA levels in the blood, hypocapnia, and a tendency for insufficiency of pulmonary surfactant. The results suggest that the disorder of homeostasis caused by immobilization is strong enough to bring about pulmonary embolism without bone fracture.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathophysiology, Second Military Medical College, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.forename: Y F
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000097:blood; D004620:Embolism, Fat / Q000209:etiology* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D007103:Immobilization / Q000009:adverse effects*; D008071:Lipoprotein Lipase / Q000097:blood; D008954:Models, Biological; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D011655:Pulmonary Embolism / Q000209:etiology* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D011817:Rabbits
chemical_list: D002245:Carbon Dioxide; D008071:Lipoprotein Lipase; D010100:Oxygen