Pulmonary Edema (PE)

In pulmonary edema there is an accumulation of fluid in the interstitial lung tissue and/or alveoli. Since the fluid transport is dictated by the prevailing osmotic and hydrostatic pressures and by the permeability of the membranes, pulmonary edema might also be defined as a condition in which this transport of fluid is disturbed because of pathologically increased hydrodynamic pressure and concentration gradients acting through abnormally permeable membranes. It is also very probable that nervous or humoral vasomotor reactions take part in the causal mechanism of pulmonary edema.