Ventilatory responses to low levels of CO2 inhalation in the cat

The steady-state ventilatory and end-tidal PCO2 (PETCO2) responses to low-level CO2 inhalation have been studied in four awake cats. Four cats anesthetized with Dial-urethane were also studied before and after vagal section or blockade. Awake cats breathed gas mixtures with FICO2 equal to 0.0015 (control), 0.01 and 0.03 in oxygen or 0.0015, 0.01 and 0.02 in air, while anesthetized cats inhaled FICO2 of 0.0000 (control), 0.005 and 0.01 in oxygen. In order to obtain accurate, unbiased determinations of the respiratory system responses to small increases of FICO2 above control values, we used a protocol in which control conditions preceded and followed each CO2 test. The pairwise response for each variable was calculated from the mean of the two 'bracketing' control values. We found that low-level CO2 inhalation in the cat resulted in consistent and significant increases in PETCO2 (82 of 86 trials) and VT (76 of 86 trials) but inconsistent changes in TTOT. We conclude that low-level CO2 inhalation in the cat results in hypercapnia detectable by a replicated, unbiased experimental design.