Pulmonary impedance in dogs measured by forced random noise with a retrograde catheter

Retrograde catheter and forced random noise techniques were combined to study the distribution of resistance and compliance in dogs following the inhalation of aerosols containing 2.5 and 5.0 mg/ml of histamine. Mean base-line peripheral resistance was 0.367 cmH2O . l-1 . s, agreeing with previous estimates. After correction for the endotracheal tube, the mean central airway resistance was 0.040 cmH2O . l-1 . s, considerably lower than previous estimates. This discrepancy was attributed to an overcorrection for the endotracheal tube resistance. The lower histamine dose caused a substantial increase in peripheral resistance, a relatively small increase in central resistance, and substantial decreases in total and peripheral compliance. After the higher histamine dose, changes in peripheral resistance and both compliances were similar to those obtained with the lower dose; however, the increase in central resistance was much larger than at the lower dose. The difference between total and peripheral compliance yielded estimates of airway compliance of 0.00306 l/cmH2O before and 0.00104 l/cmH2O after 2.5 mg/ml of histamine.