Pflügers Archiv : European journal of physiology
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In this study we have investigated the effects of breath holding and of the physical properties of gases on four different respiratory dead spaces (VD): the Fowler, the physiological, the washout and the inert gas dead space. The experiments were performed with dogs which were ventilated artificially with breathing patterns with different post-inspiratory breath holding times (ta) of 0, 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 s. Tracer amounts of acetone, ether and enflurane were infused continuously into a peripheral vein and a bolus of a mixture of krypton, Freon12 and SF6 was introduced into the peritoneal cavity. ⋯ Further, VD,phys/VT was larger than VD,Fowler/VT for SF6 and acetone. However, for gases with intermediate solubility in blood VD,phys/VT tended to be smaller than VD,Fowler/VT. We conclude that the respiratory dead spaces are affected by the breathing pattern and by the physical properties of gases, i.e. their diffusivity in alveolar gas and their solubility in blood or lung tissue.