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HIGHLIGHTED TOPICS
Lung Growth and Repair
Departments of 1Internal Medicine and 2Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas 75390-9034
Submitted 12 April 2004 ; accepted in final form 6 June 2004
| ABSTRACT |
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2.2-fold above and below the heart, whereas volumes in right middle and lower lobes did not change significantly. After right PNX, air and tissue volumes in the left upper and middle lobes increased 2.3- to 2.7-fold across the midline anterior to the heart, whereas the left lower lobe expanded
1.9-fold posterior to the heart. Regional changes in volume density of tissue post-PNX estimated by CT scan parallel postmortem estimates by morphometric analyses. Data indicate heterogeneous regional distribution of mechanical lung strain, which could influence the differential cellular compensatory response following right and left PNX. lung resection; compensatory lung growth; high-resolution computed tomography scan; lobar tissue volume; mechanical lung strain; dog
58% of total lung mass by right PNX but not after
42% resection by left PNX (7, 8); minimization of lung strain blunts compensatory lung expansion as well as cellular and physiological responses (12, 13, 27). At postmortem, we routinely observed uneven shape changes among the lobes that remain after PNX. We theorized that regional distribution of post-PNX mechanical strain is heterogeneous, depending on the amount and location of lung tissue removed and on the relative rigidity and asymmetry of mediastinal structures, such as heart, major vessels, and ligaments, that could restrict the direction and extent of regional expansion. Heterogeneous strain distribution could, in turn, influence regional compensatory cellular growth (19, 30). To assess the in vivo heterogeneity of regional lung volume after PNX, we performed high-resolution computed tomography (CT) scans at a constant transpulmonary pressure in adult foxhounds that had undergone either left or right PNX and reconstructed each remaining lobe to examine anatomic patterns of lobar expansion. We compared air and tissue volumes of each remaining lobe with that in the corresponding lobe of Sham control animals to determine the in vivo distribution of air and tissue among lobes. In addition, some of the animals had received retinoic acid (RA) after PNX as part of a separate study, and we were able to examine the effect of RA treatment on regional distribution of lung volume. | MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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1 yr old) underwent either right PNX (
58% resection, n = 12) or left PNX (
42% resection, n = 11) under general anesthesia by previously described procedures (23). Of the animals undergoing right PNX, three received all-trans-retinoic acid (RA; Sigma, St. Louis, MO) beginning 1 day after surgery (2 mg/kg po, 4 days/wk over 4 mo) and three received placebo (oil diluent only) by the same regimen as part of a separate study (4, 28). CT scan was performed during the fourth postoperative month. Details of drug administration and its physiological as well as morphological effects have been described elsewhere (4, 28). Six additional animals underwent right PNX but received no drug treatment and were scanned
1 yr after surgery. Of the animals undergoing left PNX, five received RA and six received placebo by the same regimen described above; CT scan was performed during the fourth postoperative month. Separate adult control animals underwent thoracotomy without PNX (Sham group, n = 7), received no drug treatment, and were scanned
10 mo after surgery.
CT scan.
We conducted the spiral CT scan using a GE high-speed CTI scanner at 3 x 3-mm collimation. Animals were fasted overnight, sedated with acepromazine (0.15 mg/kg sc) and atropine (0.023 ml/kg sc), and anesthetized with propofol (48 mg/kg iv for induction followed by 0.4 mg·kg1·min1 infusion). Animals were intubated with a cuffed endotracheal tube, placed in the supine position on the CT table, and mechanically ventilated (model 607, Harvard Apparatus, Millis, MA) at a tidal volume of 15 ml/kg and a respiratory rate sufficient to eliminate spontaneous breathing effort. Airway pressure was monitored. A scout image was obtained first to ensure the field of scan included the entire lung from the lung apex to the costophrenic angle. Before each imaging sequence, the lungs were hyperinflated with three tidal breaths; this was followed by passive expiration to functional residual capacity. The endotracheal tube was then connected to a calibrated syringe set to deliver a volume of air that had been previously determined in each animal to inflate the lungs to a transpulmonary pressure of 20 cmH2O. In each animal, the static transpulmonary pressure-lung volume relationship was determined in duplicate under anesthesia on at least one (but sometimes multiple) occasion before CT scan. On each occasion, we measured the change in transpulmonary pressure with a given volume inflation delivered from end expiration by a calibrated syringe; absolute lung volumes were also measured from the dilution of either helium or methane with a rebreathing technique (4, 9). After the lung was inflated with this predetermined volume, the breath was held for
30 s while CT images were obtained; afterward, the animal was switched back to the respirator. Images were reconstructed at consecutive 1-mm intervals resulting in
300 images per animal.
Analysis of CT images.
We analyzed images using Object-Image version 1.6.2 (public domain software). We used density thresholding to outline the area occupied by the lung on each image; this excluded conducting blood vessels larger than 12 mm in diameter. The trachea and next three generations of large conducting airways were excluded manually by marking them with the background color in each CT image in which they appeared. Lung volume in each image is equal to the product of its area and thickness (1 mm); total lung volume was calculated from the sum of the volume of all images. The CT densities (in Houndsfeld units) of tracheal air and of skeletal muscle were measured as estimates of air and tissue density, respectively, and used to partition the total lung volume into air and tissue volumes, since the average CT density of the lung is directly proportional to the ratio of tissue and air. Lobar fissures were identified by following serial images; we used these fissures and customized image analysis algorithms developed by us to partition the lobes of each lung. Figure 1 illustrates the demarcation of the fissure separating two adjacent lobes. Lobar tissue and air volumes were calculated as below:
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| RESULTS |
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Lobar volumes after left PNX. Table 2 shows partition of air and tissue volumes among different lobes in the normal right lung (Sham group) and in the remaining right lung of animals after left PNX. Animals receiving RA after left PNX showed slightly lower lobar air and tissue volumes compared with placebo or untreated groups, but differences did not reach statistical significance. Therefore, data from RA- and placebo-treated groups were pooled for subsequent comparison with Sham animals (Fig. 5). In Sham animals, volume of the right upper, middle, lower, and cardiac lobes comprised 20, 25, 40, and 15% of the total volume of the right lung, respectively; corresponding values were not significantly different after left PNX (29, 15, 35, and 20%, respectively; P > 0.05 left PNX vs. Sham group). After left PNX, lobar air and tissue volumes of the right lung expressed as a ratio relative to corresponding Sham values (Fig. 5) were 2.2 (upper lobe), 0.9 (middle lobe), 1.3 (lower lobe), and 2.1 (cardiac lobe); volume increased significantly in the upper and cardiac lobes (P < 0.05) but not in the middle or lower lobes.
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1525% lower) but not for right upper lobe (
1012% lower). There was no significant difference in tissue volume density between RA- and placebo-treated groups after left PNX. Changes in overall lung volumes. In Sham animals, average tissue and air volumes of the right lung constituted 57% of the total respective volume of both lungs. After right PNX, average air and tissue volumes of the remaining left lung increased proportionally (108 and 115%, respectively, above Sham left lung); thus the overall volume density of tissue remained unchanged (Table 1). After left PNX, the average air volume of the remaining right lung was 54% higher than in the right lung of Sham animals, and tissue volume was only 21% higher; therefore, the overall volume density of tissue was significantly (18%) lower (Table 2).
| DISCUSSION |
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Density gradients were analyzed to quantify regional volume density of tissue. After right PNX, lobar tissue volume increased in proportion to air volume; hence, volume density of tissue was unchanged, consistent with morphometric evidence of compensatory growth of acinar tissue (8). After left PNX, lobar tissue volume either did not increase or the increase lagged behind that in air volume, consistent with previous morphometric reports showing a lack of compensatory growth of alveolar tissue (7, 13). Administration of RA after PNX had little effect on CT-derived lobar air and tissue volumes or their regional distributions.
Comparison with literature and technical considerations. Density gradients from thoracic CT scan have been utilized to partition changes of lung air and tissue volumes (2) in the assessment of emphysema (3), idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (1, 5), growth of pulmonary nodules (26), and acute respiratory distress syndrome (1618, 21). Changes in volume distribution between upper and lower lobes have been reported in patients with acute lung injury (17). However, few studies have utilized this method for assessing regional lung growth in vivo. We previously utilized CT scan to assess regional lung volume in foxhounds that had undergone right PNX as puppies and subsequently been raised to adulthood (24). Results show that the post-PNX volume increase in the remaining lung is greater in the midthoracic region than in the caudal region near the costophrenic angle, a finding consistent with the present data. We had also utilized CT scan to study the effects of preventing post-PNX lateral lung expansion in adult dogs by using space-occupying inflated silicone prosthesis to replace the resected lung (27). In the presence of an inflated prosthesis, post-PNX volume expansion is preferentially blunted in the midlung region compared with animals with a deflated prosthesis. Our previous CT studies were done with an older generation scanner at a lower resolution and without volumetric imaging and hence could not reliably resolve lobar fissures; this technical limitation has been overcome with spiral CT scan. In these animals, we did not obtain CT scan before surgery. In subsequent cohorts (Sham and after right PNX), we found no difference in lobar distribution of air or tissue volume when CT scan was performed at 4 or 10 mo after surgery (unpublished observations).
Although spiral CT scan does not eliminate cardiogenic motion artifacts (20), such artifacts occur in all animals and do not alter systematic comparisons among groups. In vivo lung volume obtained by CT scan is systematically larger than that measured postmortem after tracheal instillation of fixatives at 25 cmH2O of hydrostatic pressure (4, 28). The difference between air-filled and liquid-filled lungs can be at least partly attributed to differences in thoracic compliance at the time of lung inflation and variable loss of pressure with time as well as residual elastic recoil and septal refolding in the fixed lung (29). Because CT-derived tissue volume includes not just alveolar septa but also small blood vessels and airway tissue up to
12 mm in diameter, i.e., the resolution limit of the scan, CT-derived tissue volume is systematically higher than alveolar septal volume (tissue + capillary blood) measured by morphometric methods in postmortem fixed lungs. Nonetheless, there are strong correlations between these two independent estimations of total air and tissue volumes in 21 of the animals in which measurements by both methods are available (Fig. 6). These correlations lend support to the use of CT scan to track parenchyma growth in vivo.
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0.12 in normal dogs and
0.09 after left PNX) (7). Because blood volume in the remaining lung increases post-PNX and CT-derived tissue volume includes volume of blood in small vessels, the 27% higher absolute tissue volume in the remaining lung after left PNX is not surprising; however, average volume density of tissue remains 18% lower than that in normal animals (
0.094 in Sham dogs and
0.077 after left PNX) (Table 2), consistent with morphometric results. Post-PNX reduction in tissue volume density was greater in the middle and lower lobes (
2025%) than in the upper and cardiac lobes (
1015%) (Fig. 4). Because the upper and lower stratum each contained one lobe that expanded significantly and one that did not, grouping two lobes into one stratum may obscure interlobar differences in structural adaptation even though no overall compensatory alveolar growth was evident by either CT scan or morphometry. We now use a modified postmortem sampling method to measure volume of each lobe separately by point counting (29).
In adult dogs after right PNX, the remaining lobes expanded more uniformly and to a greater extent than after left PNX; hence, grouping left upper and middle lobes into the upper stratum would not bias morphometric analysis. The more vigorous lobar expansion after right PNX is associated with proportional increases in alveolar septal cell volumes in the remaining lobes, such that volume density of alveolar septa per unit lung volume remained unchanged (average 0.110.12), leading to a 61% increase in lung diffusing capacity estimated by both morphometric as well as physiological methods (8, 10). In parallel with these prior findings, CT-derived tissue volume density after right PNX is also not different from that in Sham controls (average
0.10) (Table 1). The pattern of volume expansion to structural growth after different types of lung resection suggests that compensatory tissue response is influenced not only by the magnitude of regional mechanical strain but also by its distribution.
Effect of RA.
Exogenous RA has been reported to enhance postnatal alveolar septation (14) and minimize alveolar loss in emphysematous rats (15). In adult dogs treated with RA after right PNX, lung volumes measured at a given airway pressure antemortem or postmortem were not significantly altered compared with matched placebo controls (4, 28), in parallel with CT-derived estimates. RA treatment after right PNX selectively enhances the compensatory increase in alveolar capillary and endothelial cell volumes, with a
26% higher volume of alveolar septa and 37% increase in volume density of the septum compared with placebo controls (28); these moderate alveolar structural changes are not reflected in CT-derived tissue volume, again likely due to inclusion of small conducting structures in the latter measurement. After left PNX, neither CT analysis nor morphometry shows any effect of RA treatment on the compensatory response. RA treatment did not alter the lobar volume distribution after left or right PNX.
In conclusion, we report distinct patterns of lobar expansion after left and right PNX, which reflect nonuniform regional distribution of mechanical lung strain stemming from constraints imposed by rigid mediastinal structures such as the heart, great vessels, and ligaments. The increase in mechanical lung strain is greater in magnitude and more uniformly distributed after right than after left PNX. Heterogeneity in regional strain distribution may influence local histological response and compensatory alveolar growth after lung resection. Direct verification of regional pressures would require implantation of multiple pleural and/or parenchymal markers that have not yet been done. CT-derived estimates of air and tissue volumes correlate with estimates obtained postmortem in the same lungs fixed by tracheal instillation, supporting the utility of CT scan in following parenchyma growth in vivo. However, spiral CT scan cannot reliably resolve fine structural perturbations at the alveolar level.
| GRANTS |
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| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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| FOOTNOTES |
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| REFERENCES |
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