Sighing in newborn human infants: role of inflation-augmenting reflex

Abstract

To investigate the reflex mechanisms of sighs (spontaneous large breaths)(VT greater than 2 X control VT) in infants, recordings of respiratory flow and tidal volume (VT) were made during sleep. The frequency of sighs was greater at 1 than at 5 days of age, while respiratory frequency and controlVT did not change. Most sighs (93%) had a biphasic pattern of inspiratory flow characterized by an inspiratory duration nearly twice that of control breaths, with an abrupt change in flow rate halfway through inspiration. Interruption of ventilation (3–7 s of airway occlusion) appeared to generate astimulus for biphasic sighs, since sighs occurred during the first breath after termination of airway occlusion more frequently after long thanafter brief occlusions. However, a biphasic inspiratory pattern in airway pressure was rarely observed while the airways were occluded, regardless of occlusion duration. This suggests that increase in lung volume during the initialpart of the biphasic inspiration following occlusion is a stimulus for the second part. Thus the underlying reflex mechanism of sighs in human infantsappears to be the same as occurs in the so-called Head's paradoxical response to lung inflation.