Respiratory mechanics studied by forced oscillations during artificial ventilation.

Potential advantages of the forced oscillation technique over other methods for monitoring total respiratory mechanics during artificial ventilation are that it does not require patient relaxation, and that additional information may be derived from the frequency dependence of the real (Re) and imaginary (Im) parts of respiratory impedance. We wanted to assess feasibility and usefulness of the forced oscillation technique in this setting and therefore used the approach in 17 intubated patients, mechanically ventilated for acute respiratory failure. Sinusoidal pressure oscillations at 5, 10 and 20 Hz were applied at the airway opening, using a specially devised loudspeaker-type generator placed in parallel with the ventilator. Real and imaginary parts were corrected for the flow-dependent impedance of the endotracheal tube; they usually exhibited large variations during the respiratory cycle, and were computed separately for the inspiratory and expiratory phases. In many instances the real part was larger during inspiration, probably due to the larger respiratory flow, and decreased with increasing frequency. The imaginary part of respiratory impedance usually increased with increasing frequency during expiration, as expected for a predominately elastic system, but often varied little, or even decreased, with increasing frequency during inspiration. In most patients, the data were inconsistent with the usual resistance-inertance-compliance model. A much better fit was obtained with a model featuring central airways and a peripheral pathway in parallel with bronchial compliance. The results obtained with the latter model suggest that dynamic airway compression occurred during passive expiration in a number of patients. We conclude that the use of forced oscillation is relatively easy to implement during mechanical ventilation, that it allows the study of respiratory mechanics at various points in the respiratory cycle, and may help in detecting expiratory flow limitation.