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Quantitation of ventilation in terms of continuous airflow variables

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Abstract

The commonly used respiratory variables, minute volume, tidal volume and respiratory rate are discontinuous measures, and thus of limited capability to quantitate transient respiratory responses. Continuity in description is obtained by characterizing the tracheal airflow by two continuously defined variables, instantaneous amplitude,A(t), and instantaneous frequency,F(t), which can experimentally be uniquely determined at a sampling rate independent of the respiratory rate. The two variables are conceptual extensions of currently used discontinuous measures, i.e., the time average ofF(t) recovers respiratory rate, and the time average ofA(t) divided by π closely approximates minute volume. These asymptotic relations were experimentally verified in four human subjects and for different ventilatory states. Respiratory rate and averageF(t) agreed within a relative error of less than 1%. Minute volume was determined from the averageA(t) with an error, slightly dependent on the airflow pattern, of less than 6%. Since the conventionally used quantitation can always be retrieved from the continuous one,A(t) andF(t) may be employed whenever conventional methods break down.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Engineering, Medical Center, George Washington University, 20037, Washington, D. C.

    U. E. Ruttimann & W. S. Yamamoto

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  1. U. E. Ruttimann
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  2. W. S. Yamamoto
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Additional information

This study was supported by a Grant HE-09284 from the National Heart and Lung Institute. The experimental work was done in the Department of Physiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19174.

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Ruttimann, U.E., Yamamoto, W.S. Quantitation of ventilation in terms of continuous airflow variables. Ann Biomed Eng 2, 239–251 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02368495

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02368495

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