SUMMARY of Discussion on Lungs

Abstract

The chairman (Dr. Hughes, London) welcomed the invitation to lungs and heart to join the brain at this PET congress, but wondered why liver and kidney were not at the party. He stressed the difficulties in working with the lung. It was a moving organ, two-thirds of which was gas. Only 10% of the lung volume was composed of non-vascular tissue. As is well known, regional structure and function in the lung is distorted by gravity. Nevertheless, the lung carries the whole cardiac output and has a larger vascular surface area than any other organ for the uptake of lipophilic substrates from blood. The pulmonary endothelial cell has been the subject of intense study in the last decade and its cell surface is studded with receptors for bicarbonate (carbonic anhydrase), angiotensin I, bradykinin, ADP, ATP, Clq and it has procoagulant, immunologic and phagocytic properties.