TABLE 1.

PULMONARY ARTERIAL DIAMETER AND FLOW

Control	P VTI (cm)	SD	PA D (cm)	SD	CSA (cm2)	SV (ml)
uPA	7.84	1.4	0.32	0.076	0.0804	0.63
uPa + peptide	8.33	1.1	0.36	0.042	0.102	0.85
uPA + MK-801	7.97	1.7	0.33	0.054	0.0855	0.681
	8.03	1.2	0.33	0.061	0.0855	0.686

Echocardiography was performed in five different Sprague-Dawley rats (Harlan Laboratories, Jerusalem, Israel) before and after intraperitoneal injections of urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA), as described in Materials and Methods. Pulmonary artery diameter (PA D) and the time velocity integral (P TVI), as a surrogate for stroke volume, were measured. The cross-sectional area (CSA) of the pulmonary artery and cardiac stroke volume (SV) were calculated using the formulas CSA = 0.785 × D², and SV = CSA × TVI. All parameters were evaluated during an average of three consecutive beats. A single echocardiographer, blinded to the specific intervention, performed all data acquisition.