Effect of lung volume on pulmonary mechanics in guinea pigs.

The lung volume (VL) dependence of several dynamic pulmonary mechanical properties of the guinea pig lung were determined over the range of the vital capacity (10-100% VC) with the vagi intact and sectioned. We found dynamic compliance to be strongly VL dependent, decreasing as much as 85% between functional residual capacity (FRC) and total lung capacity (TLC). Below FRC, dynamic compliance either remained unchanged or decreased, depending upon the technique used in its measurement. Pulmonary resistance (RL) decreased monotonically with increasing VL, whereas pulmonary conductance was linearly related to VL. Conductance was much less sensitive to VL than compliance, increasing only 28% between FRC and TLC. The sensitivity of pulmonary conductance to VL was substantially increased by subtracting the resistance of the tracheal cannula from RL. Specific pulmonary conductance was not independent of VL but decreased approximately 45% over the range of the VC. Pulmonary inertance was found to be unaffected by VL. Extrapolation from these data indicate that small differences in FRC, which might be expected within and between studies relying on pulmonary mechanical measurements, would most strongly affect compliance estimates and only moderately alter resistance estimates. It also indicates that the use of specific pulmonary conductance does not remove VL as an independent variable.