Respiratory transfer impedance between 8 and 384 hz in guinea pigs before and after bronchial challenge. Sobh, Jamil F., Craig M. Lilly, Jeffrey M. Drazen, Andrew C. Jackson. Respiratory Research Laboratory, Biomedical Engineering Department, Boston University, Boston, MA. 02215, Combined Program in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA. 02115
APStracts 3:0455A, 1996.
We report a forced oscillatory technique for noninvasively measuring respiratory transfer impedance (Ztr) between 8 and 384 Hz in guinea pigs. This technique uses a device consisting of two chambers, one surrounding the animal's head that is used as a plethysmograph to measured flow through the airway opening , and the other which surrounds the animal's body and is used to apply pressure oscillations to the body surface (Pbs). Ztr was measured in spontaneously breathing awake guinea pigs, and while anesthetized in normal and methacholine challenged conditions. An 8-element model consisting of an airway compartment separated from a tissue compartment by a shunt gas compression compartment was fit to the data. Anesthesia increased central airway resistance (Rcaw), peripheral airway resistance (Rpaw), and bronchial airway wall compliance (Cb) by 13%, 31% by 44%, respectively, whereas decreased Ct by 37%. Compared to the unanesthetized condition, the methacholine challenge (20[mu]g/kg) resulted in an increase in Rcaw and Rpaw (69% and 319%, respectively) and a decrease in Cb and Ct (37% and 79%, respectively). This technique is capable of measuring Ztr in anesthetized and awake guinea pigs. Analysis of these data with this 8-element model provides reasonable estimates of airway and tissue parameters.

Received 21 February 1996; accepted in final form 17 September
1996.
APS Manuscript Number A167-6.
Article publication pending Journal of Applied Physiology.
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1996 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 5 November 1996