Techniques for measuring respiratory mechanics: an analytic approach with a viscoelastic model

A homogeneous model with stress relaxation that is described by a pure viscoelastic component was recently proposed to describe the mechanical behavior of the respiratory system during mechanical ventilation (Bates et al. J. Appl. Physiol. 67: 2276-2285, 1989). With the use of this model, analytic expressions of the pressure in response to typical volume inputs are developed, and the recently published studies relating to the influence of the ventilatory pattern on respiratory mechanics are reviewed and analyzed. The analytic expression of pressure responses to rapid airway occlusion following constant-flow inflation and to sinusoidal volume oscillations allows prediction of most of the reported results. The theoretical analysis suggests that in normal subjects the observed flow and volume dependencies of respiratory mechanics are, in fact, illustrations of the dependence of the viscoelastic resistance on inspiratory time and respiratory frequency. Thus the homogeneous viscoelastic model appears suitable to describe respiratory system mechanical behavior under mechanical ventilation.