Bulletin européen de physiopathologie respiratoire
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Bull Eur Physiopathol Respir · Sep 1982
A method for measuring tidal volume and lung compliance in intubated neonates in the presence of endotracheal tube leakage.
Leakage around the uncuffed endotracheal tube is a major cause of error in the measurement of tidal volume and compliance in intubated neonates. A correction for the leakage can be made if the intratracheal pressure is measured during inflation provided the compliance is linear and the inflation flow is held constant. ⋯ The validity of the function has been tested using a model of the system tube-trachea-lung. In practice, the calculation is done from data obtained by graphical analysis of the pressure-time curve.
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Bull Eur Physiopathol Respir · May 1982
Comparative StudyMucus clearance from the airways in chronic bronchitis--Smokers and ex-smokers.
We have assessed lung clearance of inhaled radioactive particles, predominantly deposited in the smaller bronchi, in 60 tests on patients with chronic bronchitis. When tests were matched for sputum production, clearance in ex-smokers was not significantly faster than in patients still currently smoking. ⋯ Clearance was significantly faster in the patients who coughed frequently and produced high volume of sputum. For some patients with chronic obstructive bronchitis, giving up smoking may lead to poorer mucus clearance because of decreased transport by productive cough.
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Bull Eur Physiopathol Respir · Nov 1980
Comparative StudyComparison of four methods for calculating the total lung capacity measured by body plethysmography.
Static lung volumes were measured plethysmographically one hour apart in healthy subjects (n = 14) and in patients with chronic pulmonary disorders of various etiologies (n = 25). The total lung capacity (TLC) obtained from paired measurements of functional residual capacity (FRC) and inspiratory capacity (IC) was calculated according to the four following methods: 1) average FRC plus the largest IC, 2) average FRC plus the average IC, 3) largest sum of FRC and corresponding IC, and 4) average of individual FRC and IC sums. The data, analysed for average values and for reproducibility in the group as a whole and in the healthy subjects and patients separately indicate that: a) For the group as a whole the largest average TLC values were found with method 3 followed by methods 4 and 1. ⋯ For the healthy subjects, the reproducibility tended to be better for methods 3 and 4 and for the patients this was the case for methods 1 and 2. The average reproducibiltiy of methods 1 and 2 was similar for both the healthy and patient groups and these methods seemed more suitable for TLC calculations. Because it is more widely employed, method 1 is recommended.