Dispersion of transit times within the pulmonary vasculature from microfocal angiograms

The site and mechanism of the dispersion of blood transit times within the pulmonary vascular bed can be described using x-ray angiography images of bolus passage through the pulmonary vasculature. Time-absorbance curves from the lobar inlet artery and outlet vein, various locations within the arterial and venous trees, and regions of the microvasculature were acquired from the images. The overall dispersion within the lung lobe was determined from the inlet arterial and outlet venous curves by examining the difference in their first and second moments, mean transit time and variance, respectively. Subsequently, the moments at each location within the arterial tree were calculated and compared to those of the lobar inlet artery curve. The transit time variance imparted on the bolus as it traveled through the pulmonary arterial tree upstream from the smallest measured arteries was < 5 percent of the variance attributable to transit through the total lung lobe vascular bed. Similar results were obtained for the venous pathways using reverse-flow conditions. Regional capillary mean transit time and variance were obtained from the measured microvascular residue curves using a mass-balance model. These results suggest that most of the bolus dispersion occurs within the pulmonary capillary bed rather than in large feeding arteries or draining veins.