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. 2002 Jul;87(1):F7–F10. doi: 10.1136/fn.87.1.F7

Role of lung function testing in the management of mechanically ventilated infants

A Schibler, U Frey
PMCID: PMC1721439  PMID: 12091280

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Figure 1 .

Figure 1

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(A) The CO2 waveform has three phases. PETCO2 remains zero as gas from the anatomic dead space leaves the airway (phase I); it then rises sharply as alveolar gas mixes with dead space gas (phase II); as purely alveolar gas is exhaled, the curve levels (phase III). (B) The CO2 waveform from a small preterm infant (bold line) without an alveolar plateau (phase III), compared with that in a 6 month old infant (thin line) where the phase III is present.

Figure 2 .

Figure 2

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Three different pressure-volume curves of an infant (3.2 kg) with normal lungs during mechanical ventilation are shown. Positive end expiratory pressure has been changed from 0 (curve a) to 3 (curve b) and to 6 cm H2O (curve c). Cdyn, Re, and functional residual capacity were: curve a, 4.4 ml/cm H2O, 0.031 cm H2O/ml/s, and 60 ml; curve b, 3.0 ml/cm H2O, 0.025 cm H2O/ml/s, and 81 ml; curve c, 2.0 ml/cm H2O, 0.021 cm H2O/ml/s, and 92 ml.

Figure 3 .

Figure 3

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The pressure-volume curve of the same infant as in fig 2. When the lung is ventilated at 0 positive end expiratory pressure (PEEP) (A), a lower inflection point can be seen (crossing of line a and b). With increasing inspiratory pressure, the lungs are inflated and the pressure-volume relation becomes linear (line c). If PEEP is set to 6 (B), most of the inspiratory limb of the pressure-volume curve is linear.

Figure 4 .

Figure 4

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(A) An SF6 washout using an ultrasonic flow meter. (B) An SF6 washout of an infant with severe ventilation inhomogeneity. The SF6 concentration (log scale) is plotted against the number of breaths. There is an initial fast lung compartment (line a) followed by a slow emptying one (line b).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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