EFFECT OF NEGATIVE-PRESSURE BREATHING ON LUNG MECHANICS AND VENOUS ADMIXTURE.

Abstract

Anesthetized dogs in the supine position show a spontaneous decrease in total respiratory compliance and an increase in venous admixture to the pulmonary circulation. Both these changes can be increased by negative-pressure breathing and reversed by positive-pressure breathing. If the changes in total respiratory compliance are due only to changes in lung compliance and these in turn result directly from the closure of alveoli, the relationship between compliance and inspiratory and expiratory pressure allows one to determine the scatter of opening and closing pressures in the alveoli. The venous admixture measures blood flow through collapsed alveoli, and its relationship to the negative pressure applied indicates the perfusion of the alveoli collapsing with each increment in negative pressure. By studying simultaneously changes in compliance and venous admixture, and using two basic assumptions, the dog's lungs can be described as a system composed of some elements receiving nearly 50% of the ventilation and 20% of the perfusion, relatively unstable mechanically, and having a very high Va/ Q ratio, while the remaining air spaces receive the same ventilation, but 80% of the perfusion. lung compliance; atelectasis; ventilation-perfusion ratio Submitted on October 28, 1963