Effects of hypercapnia on variability of normal respiratory behavior in awake cats

Resting quiet awake cats breathing air in a steady state have a range of respiratory behavior, and this encompasses nonpurring and purring (D. B. Jennings and P. C. Szlyk, Can. J. Physiol. Pharmacol. 63: 148-154, 1985). On a given study day, individual cats usually breathed in a limited part of their potential respiratory range. Respiratory pattern, such as average breath frequency (f) and average tidal volume (VT) utilized for a given level of ventilation (V), could be predicted when cats breathed air; as well, inspiratory (TI) and expiratory (TE) times were specific for a given breath f. Inhalation of 2% and 4% CO2 in air caused an average increase in ventilation of 16 and 100%, respectively but breath-to-breath variability of V, f, and VT persisted at each fractional concentration of inspired CO2 (FICO2). The range of different V utilized breath to breath when breathing 2% CO2 overlapped with V during air control studies. Substantial overlap with control V also occurred in three of six cats when breathing 4% CO2. The most consistent effect of progressive hypercapnia was to increase VT and decrease f at a given level of V; increase in V during hypercapnia was accounted for by an increase in mean inspiratory flow (VT/TI). Hypercapnia also caused the fraction of breathing cycle devoted to inspiration (TI/TT) to increase at low f but not at high f.