Statistical evaluation of ventilatory patterns in response to intermittent hypoxia in the rabbit

In the present study we investigated whether classical or non-classical statistical methods might be useful in the diagnosis of early changes evoked by intermittent hypoxia (IH) in an experimental model. The experiments were carried out in anesthetized, spontaneously breathing rabbits. IH consisted of 5 cycles of breathing 14% O(2) in N(2) for 1 min interspersed with 3 min normoxic intervals. The following ventilatory variables were evaluated: frequency breathing, tidal volume, and minute ventilation. The results indicate that IH had a progressively stimulatory effect on the baseline ventilation and on the hypoxic ventilatory responses. Further, the algorithms of the pattern recognition theory might be a suitable tool for the recognition of early ventilatory effects of recurrent hypoxic events in the IH model. The recognition of IH states may be useful in clinical and sports medicine.