An obstructive apnea in the suckling opossum

Pressure plethysmographic measurement of ventilation and electromyographic measurement of diaphragm activation in unanesthetized suckling opossums revealed spontaneous episodes of obstructive apnea. To better understand this phenomenon, intact animals were tested under different conditions of respiratory drive and during activation of pulmonary reflexes. Results showed that obstructed breaths were usually initiated with the lungs at or near the end-inspiratory level, and they occurred more frequently during air or oxygen breathing as compared with inhalation of hypercapnic or asphyxiant test gases. The latter two gas mixtures caused increases in ventilation; but depression of breathing resulting from pentobarbital anesthesia was not accompanied by obstructed breaths. It was initially considered that a reflex laryngeal response with changes in lung volume or lung irritation might trigger obstructive apnea; but pulmonary inflation and deflation as well as ammonia inhalation did not typically produce such an effect. The results indicate that mechanisms for obstructive apnea in the suckling opossum must account for the limited incidence of obstructed breaths during both ventilatory chemostimulation and anesthetic respiratory depression.