Bronchoalveolar Lavage in an Animal Model ofAcute Lung Injury Relationship Between Enhanced Membrane Permeability and Transvascular Neutrophil Flux
From the Department ofMedicine, Pulmonary Division, and the Department of Pathology, Medical College of Virginia/McGuire Veterans Administration Hospital, Richmond, Virginia
FREDERICK L. GLAUSER, MD, DANIEL E. BECHARD, MD, BERNARDJ. FISHER, BS, DONALD DAVIS, BS, and ALPHA A. FOWLER, III, MD
Results of studies utilizing bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) have led workers to propose that the neutrophil serves as the pivotal cellular element responsible for promoting enhanced alveolar capillary membrane (ACM) permeability in certain forms of acute lung injury. The authors performed BAL on anesthetized, intubated, instrumented sheep before and after the administration of 15 mg/kg ethchlorvynol, a known pulmonary edemagenic agent. Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) protein content increased from 0.62 ± 0.05 to 1.5 ± 0.15 mg/ml, and the percentage of neutrophils recovered from 2% ± 1% at baseline to 35% ± 7% (P < 0.01) 60 minutes after infusion of ethchlorvynol. After ethchlorvynol infusion into neutro-
