Minimal air in dogs

¹ Rehabilitation Center, Departments of Pediatrics and Physiology, The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, Madison, Wisconsin

The "minimal air" of supine dogs was measured by subtracting from the functional residual capacity the volume expelled from the lungs when the sternum was widely split. Minimal air/functional residual capacity, minimal air/lung weight, and minimal air/animal weight were 57.0 ± 8.6%, 9.51 ± 2.92 ml/g, 21.8 ± 4.2 ml/kg, respectively. The correlation coefficient of minimal air with functional residual capacity was .79 (P < 1%), of minimal air with animal weight was 0.70 (P < 1%), and of minimal air with lung weight was .67 (P < 5%). The ratio minimal air/functional residual capacity of these dogs compared with the ratio residual volume/functional residual capacity of supine men. The airway component of the minimal air was approximately 36% and the alveolar component approximately 64%. The lungs contained the minimal air at a time when airways were patent rather than collapsed.

Submitted on March 11, 1963