[Restrictive lung disease].

It was found that functional residual capacity (FRC) invariably decreased during inspiratory elastic loaded breathing and that its magnitude increased progressively with an increase in the intensity of the load. This response could not be explained by chemoreflexes nor neural reflexes. Because the sensation of dyspnea decreased at lowered FRC (FRC-0.5 liter) than that at FRC during elastic loading, we speculate that FRC decreased behaviorally during elastic loading to reduce the sensation of dyspnea. We found that the respiratory muscle became fatigued more easily at FRC than at lowered FRC during elastic loading. We therefore conclude that the decrease in FRC may be one of the compensatory mechanisms during elastic loaded breathing.