Journal
RESPIRATORY PHYSIOLOGY & NEUROBIOLOGY
Volume 202, Issue -, Pages 44-49Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.resp.2014.07.012
Keywords
Alveolar mechanics; Compliance; In vivo microscopy imaging
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Funding
- Fondazione Cariplo
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In six male anesthetized, tracheotomized, and mechanically ventilated rabbits we derived indications on alveolar mechanics from in vivo imaging, using a pleural window technique (pleural space intact) that allows unrestrained movement of the same subpleural alveoli (N=60) on increasing alveolar pressure from 4 to 8 cmH(2)O. Absolute compliance (C-abs, ratio of change in alveolar surface area to the change in alveolar pressure) was significantly lower in smaller compared to larger alveoli. Specific compliance, C-sp, obtained by normalizing C-abs to alveolar surface area, was essentially independent of alveolar size. Both C-abs and C-sp were affected by large variability likely reflecting the complex matching between elastic and surface forces. We hypothesize that the relative constancy of C-sp might contribute to reduce interregional differences in parenchymal and surface forces in the lung tissue by contributing to assure a uniform stretching in a model of mechanically inter-dependent alveoli. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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