This investigation was undertaken to determine whether a Starling resistor or venous waterfall effect exists between the sagittal sinus and the cerebral veins such that increases in sagittal sinus pressure (Pss) do not abolish cerebral venous outflow and to examine two possible contributions of extracranial venous valves in regulating outflow. Anesthetized dogs were subjected to positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) before and after intracranial pressure (Pic) was elevated by inflation of an epidural balloon. PEEP raised Pss equally in all animals, but Pic and cerebral venous pressure (Pcv) increased less in the presence of intracranial hypertension. When Pss was low, passage of a catheter in the cerebral vein in and out of the sagittal sinus demonstrated an abrupt drop in pressure as the sinus was entered. When Pss was raised and lowered independently of superior vena caval pressure (Psvc) the changes in Pic and Pcv were less when Pss was decreased than when it was increased. Sustained increases and decreases in Psvc caused increases and decreases in Pcv, Pic, Pss, and external jugular venous pressure (Pejv) regardless of whether external jugular venous valves were present or absent. We conclude that a Starling resistor between the sagittal sinus and the cerebral veins regulates cerebral venous outflow when Pss is increased by PEEP and other maneuvers that raise Psvc. The waterfall maintains Pcv and Pic at normal levels when Psvc and Pss are reduced. Extracranial venous valves are not essential to this mechanism.

Although oxygenation improves in patients with the adult respiratory distress syndrome and in animals with oleic acid- (OA) induced acute lung injury when they are turned from the supine to the prone position, the mechanism(s) by which this improvement occurs is not known. Several groups have speculated that this improvement results from preferential edema accumulation in the dorsal lung regions and redistribution of perfusion away from these regions when the patients are turned to the prone position. We used radiolabeled microspheres to measure the regional distribution of perfusion (Qr) to the dorsal, mid, and ventral lungs of eight dogs in vivo in the supine and prone positions, before and after inducing acute lung injury with OA, and correlated the Qr observed after injury with the degree of regional extravascular lung water (EVLWr). Before OA, Qr increased along the gravitational gradient when the animals were supine but was more uniformly distributed when they were prone. After OA, Qr again followed a gravitational gradient when the animals were supine but was preferentially distributed to the nondependent regions when they were prone. EVLWr was similar in all regions, regardless of whether OA was injected when the animals were supine or prone. The gravitational Qr gradient is markedly reduced in the prone position, both before and after lung injury. The prone position-induced improvement in oxygenation is not the result of redistribution of Qr away from areas in which edema preferentially develops.

A B S T R A C T The possibility that surface tension may affect the hydrostatic transmural pressure of pulmonary vessels and the development of pulmonary edema was studied in anesthetized, open-chested dogs.Isogravimetric pressure (the static intravascular pressure at which transmural osmotic and hydrostatic pressures are balanced such that net fluid flux is zero and lung weight is constant) was measured in nine animals under three conditions: (a) control, normal surface tension, at an alveolar pressure of 30 cm H20 with the apenic lung at room temperature; (b) after increasing surface tension by cooling and ventilating at a low functional residual capacity, at an alveolar pressure sufficient to produce the same lung volume present during control measurements; and (c) after restoring surface tension by rewarming while holding the lung at a high inflation volume, again at the control lung volume. Lung volumes were established from external dimensions and confirmed + 10% by deflation spirometry. The isogravimetric pressure (relative to alveolar pressure) was significantly less with increased surface tension than during either the initial control condition (P < 0.01), or when the surface tension has been restored (P < 0.01). Similar changes occurred in each ofthree additional studies performed with control alveolar pressures of 10 cm H20. Thus, increased surface tension favors fluid leakage presumably because it increases the microvascular transmural pressure.

SUMMARY We studied regional blood flow (QR) using radiolabeled microspheres and measured hemodynamic variables in 20 anesthetized dogs in normal sinus rhythm and during ventricular fibrillation treated with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Nonsimultaneous compression and ventilation CPR (NSCV-CPR) was performed in seven dogs with a pneumatic piston that gave 50 chest compressions/min with an open airway with 10 ventilations at an airway pressure of 33 mm Hg interposed between each fifth and sixth compression. Simultaneous compression and ventilation (SCV-CPR) was performed in seven dogs with the piston and in six other dogs with a circumferential pneumatic vest. Both devices gave 30 compressions/min simultaneously with 30 ventilations that elevated airway pressure to 80 mm Hg. The abdomen was bound during SCV-CPR. Regional blood flow (mean SD) to the cerebral hemispheres, cardiac ventricles, and kidneys, expressed as ml/min/100 g tissue, was 3.1 + 4.0, 3.4 3.3 and 1.5 1.5, respectively, during NSCV-CPR; 11.5 + 5.9, 4.9 4.7 and 2.7 2.7 during SCV-CPR (vest); and 16.2 + 7.2, 11.0 4.0 and 20.1 20.2 during SCV-CPR (piston) (all p < 0.05 compared with NSCV-CPR). These results indicate that QR to all organs studied is reduced below normal sinus rhythm levels during CPR for ventricular fibrillation, QR to the brain is proportionately greater than QR to the heart and kidneys, and QR to the brain is greater with both forms of SCV-CPR than with NSCV-CPR.BECAUSE cardiopulmonary arrest is one of the greatest stresses the body can suffer, the success of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) depends upon maintaining vital organ perfusion at a level consistent with full recovery of function after resuscitation. Conventional or nonsimultaneous ventilation and compression CPR (NSCV-CPR) fibrillation (VF) treated with NSCV-CPR and two forms of SCV-CPR. MethodsTwenty adult mongrel dogs, mean weight 23.7 kg, unselected for chest configuration, were studied. Anesthesia was induced with thiopental sodium (1 g) and maintained with ketamine (mean dose 0.6 + 0.3 g; mean time of administration after thiopental 89 + 44 minutes). The dogs were intubated with an endotracheal tube, the proximal end of which extended 2-4 cm outside the mouth. The cuff was inflated to achieve an airtight seal; the exact amount of air inserted was not measured.

We investigated possible mechanisms by which positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) increased cerebrospinal fluid pressure (PCSF) in anesthetized mechanically ventilated dogs. In part I of the study, PEEP was applied in 5 cmH2O increments each lasting 1-2 min, before and after a snare separated the spinal from the cerebral subarachnoid space in each animal. Next, with the spinal cord still ligated, the dogs were ventilated without PEEP while superior vena cava pressure (PSVC) was raised in 5 cmH2O increments by means of a fluid reservoir connected with the superior vena cava. Cerebrospinal fluid pressure in the cisterna magna increased immediately and in parallel with PEEP before and after the spinal subarachnoid space was occluded and also increased when PSVC was raised independently; in all circumstances the increase in PCSF correlated closely with PSVC (r = 0.926). In part II of the study, arterial blood gases were drawn before and after PEEP was applied in the same increments and for the same duration as in part I. Cerebrospinal fluid pressure measured with a hollow skull screw again rose in parallel with PEEP, whereas arterial carbon dioxide tension rose only slightly at 60 s. In part III of the study, mean arterial pressure (Pa) was allowed to decrease with PEEP or was held constant by distal aortic obstruction and volume infusion. Cerebrospinal fluid pressure increased regardless of Pa, but the increase was greater when Pa was held constant than when it fell with PEEP. We conclude that PEEP increases PCSF primarily by increasing PSVC and decreasing cerebral venous outflow. This effect is augmented if cerebral arterial inflow is increased as well.