Chest, Vol 94, 22-27, Copyright © 1988 by American College of Chest Physicians

ARTICLES

Clearance of aerosolized 99mTc-diethylenetriaminepentacetate before and after smoke inhalation

WR Clark, ZD Grossman, C Ritter-Hrncirik and F Warner
Department of Surgery, Burn Service, State University of New York Health Science Center, Syracuse 13210.

The pulmonary clearance of aerosolized 99mTc- diethylenetriaminepentacetate (DTPA) was studied in mongrel dogs immediately after exposure to wood smoke to see if a sensitive, objective way of assessing the degree of pulmonary injury might be found. Animals were studied in four groups as follows: control, following five minutes, two minutes, and 15 seconds of smoke exposure. Chest roentgenograms and 133Xe scans were taken before and after smoke exposure. The DTPA clearance was more sensitive in detecting injury than either of these imaging techniques. The DTPA clearance rates increased in a dose responsive way following smoke inhalation: 2.4 percent and 12.1 percent excreted per minute for control animals and those exposed to five minutes of smoke, respectively. Seven patients in a clinical trial of DTPA following smoke exposure are described; their DTPA clearance rates were all normal, although five were active cigarette smokers. Despite encouraging results in animal experiments, DTPA clearance studies may be of little practical value in the clinical setting of acute inhalation injury.