An 81 year-old male with a history positive for coronary artery disease, chronic hypertension and rheumatoid arthritis presented to the hospital complaining of diffuse chest pain. Chest x-ray on admission did not reveal lung masses, atelectasis, signs of infection or any other radiologic abnormality. Cardiac catheterization revealed multi-vessel disease. He underwent coronary artery bypass graft surgery on 5 vessels. On the first postoperative day the patient developed atelectasis of the entire right upper lobe.

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Charcoal haemoperfusion remains the treatment of choice for severe theophylline toxicity. However, this technique may not be available in most hospitals. We described a case of 62-year-old man, who presented with severe theophylline toxicity (peak level 85 mg/L), which was treated successfully with high volume continuous venovenous haemofiltration (CVVH). We also review the literature concerning treatment of theophylline toxicity with haemofiltration.

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It is difficult clinically to measure relative blood flow to each lung. We hypothesized that uni-lung % blood flow is linearly related to % carbon dioxide excretion (VCO2). In a canine model of acute unilateral lung injury, we measured uni-lung flow with ultrasonic flow-probes, and uni-lung VCO2 with two separate metabolic monitors utilizing split lung ventilation following thoracotomy. Relative flow to the lungs was altered by inflating a pulmonary artery catheter balloon in one of the lungs under conditions of normal lung function and following induction of acute lung injury.

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