Journal of Applied Physiology, Vol 44, Issue 2 150-155, Copyright © 1978 by American Physiological Society
Effects of prostaglandin F2alpha on lung mechanics in nonasthmatic and asthmatic subjects
R. Brown, R. H. Ingram Jr and E. R. McFadden Jr
Prostaglandins have been implicated as secondary pharmacologic mediators in
allergic bronchial asthma. We have studied the effects of the intravenous
infusion of prostaglandin F2alpha (PGF2alpha) on pulmonary mechanics in
nonasthmatic and asthmatic volunteers. Before and during the infusion,
measurements were made of total lung capacity and its subdivisions, static
deflational transpulmonary pressure-volume relationships (PV), and maximal
expiratory flow-volume curves with air and after a washing of an 80%
helium-20% oxygen mixture. In both groups, PGF2alpha caused significant
decreases in vital capacity and maximal flow and increases in residual
volume. There were not significant differences between groups in either the
absolute magnitude or the percent change in the variables, a result which
may have been due to the similarity of the pulmonary mechanics in both
groups prior to infusion. Changes in density dependence were bidirectional
in both groups, indicating that relative contributions of large and small
airways to flow limitation changed differently among individuals. The
single between-group difference in responses noted was a leftward shift of
the PV curve in the asthmatics, suggesting recoil of the lung which occurs
in asthma.
