Abstract
Summary
(1) Pressure-volume curves of the chest and lungs may be portrayed directly on the cathode ray oscilloscope to show the elastic and viscous properties described by previous authors (1,2). Alterations of muscle tone of the thorax affect the pressure-volume curve in such a way as to aid or resist artificial respiration and are immediately detectable by this method. (2) Pressure-flow curves may be recorded in a similar manner. This method permits the easy evaluation of the constants: involved in the equation P = KV + K'V2 which are determined by the physical characteristics of the lung tree. (3) Inertia of the thorax causes a small lag between pressure around the chest and flow at the mouth. This time lag is of the order of one-sixtieth of a second.
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