HRV (heart rate variability) analysis is a widely employed method to assess cardiac autonomic nervous system activity. Accurate HRV measurement is critical to its value as a diagnostic and prognostic tool. Different breathing patterns may affect HRV, but results obtained under static conditions are conflicting. HRV indices decrease considerably during systemic inflammation evoked by experimenta...

BACKGROUND The ventilatory capacity of the respiratory neuromuscular system can be studied with the hypercapnia test. OBJECTIVE To determine whether decreased response to the hypercapnia test is associated with failure to pass a spontaneous breathing trial (SBT) or extubation failure. METHODS We studied 103 intubated patients ready for SBT. We used a hypercapnia test in which we approximate...

Evidence derived from spontaneous measures of cardiovagal baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) suggests that slow breathing at 6 breaths/min augments BRS. However, increases in BRS associated with slow breathing may simply reflect the frequency-dependent nature of the baroreflex rather than the modulation of baroreflex function by changes in breathing rate per se. To test this hypothesis we employed a ...

CONTEXT Breathing and swallowing coordination, despite the expressive number of study, remain as theme deserving further research. OBJECTIVE To identify a coordination pattern between swallowing and the natural breathing pause that occur in association with it (swallowing apnea) and also the relevance of the vocal folds closure in this process. METHODS Sixty-six adults, male and female, inc...

INTRODUCTION We conducted the present study to determine whether a combination of the mechanical ventilation weaning predictors proposed by the collective Task Force of the American College of Chest Physicians (TF) and weaning endurance indices enhance prediction of weaning success. METHOD Conducted in a tertiary paediatric intensive care unit at a university hospital, this prospective study ...

Since the introduction of this test by Hermannsen (1933), the measurement of maximum breathing capacity (M.B.C.) on different groups of subjects has been reported on several occasions (for example, Gray and Green, 1945; Baldwin, Cournand, and Richards, 1948; Wright, Yee, Filley, and Stranahan, 1949; and Gilson and Hugh-Jones, 1949). Most investigators have performed this test with a spirometer,...

The purpose of the present study was to clarify the influence of inspiratory resistive breathing during exercise under hypoxic conditions on muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) and blood pressure (BP). Six healthy males completed this study. The subjects performed a submaximal exercise test using a cycle ergometer in a semirecumbent position under normoxic [inspired oxygen fraction (FiO2) ...

In this paper we report on first results of a newly started project focussing on interactional functions of breathing in spontaneous multiparty conversation. Specifically, we investigate respiratory patterns associated with backchannels (short feedback expressions), and compare them with breathing cycles observed during longer stretches of speech or while listening to interlocutor’s speech. Ove...