ABSTRACT

The beauty and diversity of pulmonary physiology and anatomy is partly due to the complexity of its vascular bed, since the lung receives blood from 2 sources: the bronchial arteries containing systemic oxygenated blood and the pulmonary arteries containing venous blood. Even if the category of pulmonary vascular diseases, including conditions like pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), pulmonary veno-occlusive disease (PVOD), pulmonary embolism (PE), and chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH), primarily affects the Vasa publica, the pulmonary vessels and capillaries, the systemic vasculature within the lung-bronchial vessels and Vasa vasorum-may also be involved. Figure  6.1 shows the normal histology and anatomic topography of all relevant blood vessels of the lung (1).