Abstract
The extensive pulmonary vascular tree has capillaries that can be affected by ambient pressures. These pressures modulate blood flow within capillaries. Cardiac output has an impact on pulmonary vascular resistance. Lung volumes and the resulting alveolar stretching also alter pulmonary vascular resistance. Three zones of the lung in an upright individual are identified and are called the West’s Zones of the lung. The pulmonary wedge pressure when measured in west’s zone 3 of the lung results in accurately measuring the left atrial pressures.
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References
West, J.B. Ventilation/blood flow and gas exchange. 1st ed. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications; Philadelphia: Lippincott; 1990. (5th ed., 1965).
West J, Dollery C, Naimark A. Distribution of blood flow in isolated lung; relation to vascular and alveolar pressures. J Appl Physiol. 1964;19:713–24.
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Madamangalam, A.S., Raj, T.D. (2017). West’s Zones. In: Raj, T. (eds) Data Interpretation in Anesthesia. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55862-2_76
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55862-2_76
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