(1) Twelve patients with chronic bronchitis and/or pulmonary emphysema with borderline pulmonary artery Eressure and arterial blood gases have been submitted to aemodynamic studies in order to compare changes in the pulmonary circulation brought about by leg exercise and by voluntary hyperventilation with comparable breathing rate, tidal volume and arterial blood gases during both periods.
(2) Minute ventilation (Exercise: 12.1 ± 1.9 l. min‐l m‐2; hyperventilation: 12.8± 1.8 1 · min‐1· m‐2), breathing rate (E: 22.6 ±3.4, H: 23.5 ±3.8), percentage arterial oxygen saturation (E: 94.7±3.3%, H: 95.9±2.7%) and carbon dioxide tension (E: 45.5 ± 5.1 mm Hg, H: 46.8 ± 5.1 mm Hg) did not differ significantly during exercise and hyperventilation, thus suggesting that both mechanical forces acting upon intrathoracic structures and pulmonary vasomotor tone were comparable.
(3) During exercise pulmonary arterial mean pressure (31.4±5.7mm Hg) and pulmonary wedge pressure (13.2± 4.2 mm Hg) rose significantly (p < 0.001) and consistently. During hyperventilation pulmonary arterial mean pressure rose slightly (22.1 ± 5.5 mm Hg, p < 0.05) and the increase in average pulmonary wedge pressure was insignificant (10.0±5.4 mm Hg), although the latter rose markedly in five cases. Pulmonary vascular resistances were not consistently modified. Pulmonary wedge pressure was not correlated with minute ventilation but was positively correlated with the amplitude of respiratory variations in intrathoracic pressure.
(4) Thus, our data suggested that the rise in pulmonary artery and wedge pressures during exercise was due to the combined effects of large intrathoracic pressure swings and of an increase in the haemodynamic load of the left ventricle.