Effect of mechanical factors on respiratory work and ventilatory responses to CO2

Abstract

The end-tidal pCo2, mechanical work of breathing, and ventilation were determined in normal subjects breathing air, 2.2, 4.2 and 5.8 per cent Co2, with no added resistance and with three grades of added airway resistance. With increasing resistance, pCo2 and work rose in parallel whereas ventilation remained constant or even decreased. In the presence of a constant Co2 stimulus, increasing airway resistance caused a progressive decrease in ventilatory response to Co2. The maximum breathing capacity was not in itself the limiting factor in the ventilatory response to Co2. It is concluded that mechanical abnormalities of the respiratory apparatus are an important factor in reducing the ventilatory response to Co2, and that work of breathing is a more satisfactory index of respiratory stimulation than ventilation. Since patients with obstructive emphysema have nonelastic resistance values in the same range as those used in this study, it is concluded that the low ventilatory response to Co2 in these patients can, in large part, be explained by the mechanical abnormalities. Submitted on April 28, 1959