Pulmonary oedema in lung disease.

Pulmonary extravascular fluid volume has been estimated during cardiac catheterization, using a double isotope dilution technique, in 28 patients with lung disease: 20 of these patients had obstructive airway disease and 8 had primary pulmonary vascular obstruction. In the patients with obstructive airway disease, 4 of the 8 patients who had a history of congestive heart failure had much increased values of pulmonary extravascular volume, whereas values in patients with no such history of heart failure, or in those with primary vascular obstruction, were either normal or only marginally raised. Though coronary artery disease or some other form of heart disease cannot be excluded in these patients, it suggests that left ventricular failure, perhaps as