Acute hypoxic pulmonary vascular response does not accompany plasma endothelin-1 elevation in subjects susceptible to high altitude pulmonary edema.
We have previously shown that high altitude pulmonary edema-susceptible subjects (HAPE-S) have an accentuated pulmonary vascular response to hypoxia. In this study, we investigated the relationship between plasma endothelin-1 (ET-1) levels and the acute hypoxic pulmonary vascular response in HAPE-S and control subjects. In six HAPE-S and seven healthy subjects, we evaluated acceleration time/right ventricular ejection time (AcT/RVET) using Doppler echocardiography, and measured plasma ET-1 levels by radioimmunoassay (RIA) before and after 5 minutes of breathing 10% oxygen. The HAPE-S showed a significantly increased pulmonary vascular response to hypoxia compared with healthy subjects. However, no statistically significant changes of plasma ET-1 levels were observed before and after hypoxia in both groups. We conclude that the increased pulmonary vascular response to acute hypoxia in HAPE-S may not be related to ET-1 release.
Droma
Y
Y
First Department of Internal Medicine, Shinshu University School of Medicine, Matsumoto.
Ge
R L
RL
Tanaka
M
M
Koizumi
T
T
Hanaoka
M
M
Miyahara
T
T
Yamaguchi
S
S
Okada
K
K
Yoshikawa
S
S
Fujimoto
K
K
Matsuzawa
Y
Y
Kubo
K
K
Kobayashi
T
T
Sekiguchi
M
M
D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D000532:Altitude Sickness / Q000097:blood / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D019332:Endothelin-1 / Q000097:blood* / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D000860:Hypoxia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011652:Pulmonary Circulation / Q000502:physiology*; D011654:Pulmonary Edema / Q000097:blood / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology
D019332:Endothelin-1