Mechanical properties of the rabbit upper airway during hypoxia and hypercapnia.

It has been suggested that the response of upper airway muscles to hypoxia may be different from the response of these muscles to hypercapnia. We therefore measured pulmonary ventilation and the mechanical properties of the isolated upper airway in 9 anesthetised rabbits during respiration of hypoxic and hypercapnic gas mixtures. Each animal was exposed to several levels of elevated inspiratory CO2 fraction, FICO2 (0.03 to 0.17) and depressed inspiratory O2 fraction, FIO2 (0.19 to 0.09). The steady-state ventilatory response, the tidal pressure in the upper airway (PTUA) and the upper airway elastance were measured under each condition. Straight lines were calculated by least squares regression relating pulmonary VT to FICO2 and FIO2 and PTUA to FICO2 and FIO2. The PTUA was estimated graphically at two levels of hypoxia and hypercapnia producing equal augmentation of VT. The ratio of PTUA during hypoxia to PTUA during hypercapnia was 1.06 +/- 0.21 (mean +/- 95% C.I.) at low VT and 1.15 +/- 0.25 at high VT. Elastance of the upper airway rose from 6.25 +/- 1.13 cmH2O/ml under control conditions to a maximum of 7.95 +/- 1.24 cmH2O/ml (P less than 0.05) during hypercapnia and to a maximum of 8.02 +/- 1.17 cmH2O/ml (P less than 0.05) during hypoxia. There was no difference between the mean (+/- 95% C.I.) change associated with hypercapnia (1.64 +/- 1.08 cmH2O/ml) and the mean change associated with hypoxia (1.77 +/- 1.26 cmH2O/ml). We concluded that hypoxia did not result in a greater change in upper airway mechanical properties than hypercapnia.