The effects of inhalation of carbon monoxide on some aspects of neuromechanical ventilatory control.

Abstract

We have been involved in a broad study of the effects of brain hypoxia on the control o f breathing. The two major experimental models which we have used are inhalation of carbon monoxide and restriction of brain blood flow in intact, unanesthetized goats. Our findings to date indicate that brain hypoxia may have both inhibitory and facilitatory influences on ventilation and ventilatory responsiveness to chemical stimuli. Although these phenomena seem complex, and undoubtedly represent the interplay of several mechanisms, they are highly reproducible and may be demonstrated in each of the two different models of brain hypoxia which we have studied. In each model the occurrence of any given manifestation of brain hypoxia may be related to a specific range of 02 tension in cerebral venous blood1–4.