Partial liquid ventilation with perfluorocarbon (PFC) has proved its efficacy in animal respiratory distress syndrome models and in a number of human trials. Despite its usefulness, there is concern over possible“wash-out” effect by PFC, which might remove endogenous pulmonary surfactant (PS) in the alveoli. or possible adverse interactions between the two substances further deteriorating surface active properties. Recently Tarczy-Hornoch et al suggested that interfacial tension-reducing properties of PFC can be augmented through the use of exogenous surfactant. To evaluate the in vitro effects of addition of PFC (0.5 mM Perfluorooctyl bromide, Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis) to exogenous surfactant (1.25 and 2.5 mg phospholipid/ml S-TA, Tokyo Tanabe, Japan), we compared minimum and maximum surface tensions (ST) after 1 and 5 min of pulsation and areasurface tension relationship by using Pulsating Bubble Surfactometer (Electronetics, NY). The mixtures of surfactant and PFC showed dramatic lowering of the minimum ST after 5 min of pulsation compared with PFC alone, and even lower than that of surfactant alone. The area-surface tension curve of the mixtures was intact.Table

Table 1
Full size table

We may conclude that the mixtures of PFC and surfactant would be better than either PFC or surfactant alone in terms of ST-reducing properties and that Partial liquid ventilation with PFC in combination of exogenous PS would be more effective and might be encouraged. Figure

figure 1