[Pulmonary gas exchange in cats under heat load].

In anesthetized cats, the effect of heating stress on pulmonary gas exchange was studied in spontaneous breathing and in artificial ventilation. A moderate overheating of the animals by means of placing them into a heat chamber with air temperature 50 degrees C caused no essential disturbance of the gas exchange. In grave heating stress (the body temperature over 39.4 +/- +/- 0.17 degrees C), a considerable decrease occurred in efficiency of the gas exchange due to an increase in the lung ventilation and a decrease in the pulmonary blood flow.