Acute lung injury/acute respiratory distress syndrome is a syndrome of low respiratory compliance. However, longstanding knowledge of applied respiratory mechanics and refined imaging techniques have shown that this is clearly an oversimplified view. Though the average compliance of the respiratory system is reproducibly low, regional mechanics may vastly differ; lung, airway, and chest wall me...

BACKGROUND Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is an inflammatory disease which leads to chronic ventilatory insufficiency and is characterised by a reduction in pulmonary static and dynamic volumes. It has been suggested that lung elastance may also be abnormally increased, particularly in end stage disease, but this has not been systematically tested. The aim of this study was to assess the respira...

A detailed understanding of respiratory mechanics during mechanical ventilation aids diagnostic accuracy and facilitates close monitoring patient progress, allowing individualized ventilator adjustments aimed at minimizing induced lung injury. Respiratory can be described in terms total respiratory, lung, chest wall components include compliance, resistance are dependent on tidal volume, airway...