Transient responses to CO2 breathing of human subjects awake and asleep

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Ventilation and end-tidal Pco2 were studied in six subjects awake and asleep (following the ingestion of 200–300 mg sodium pentobarbital) during oxygen breathing and the administration and withdrawal of 4% CO2 in oxygen. During the control period as well as steady-state CO2 breathing, ventilation was significantly lower in asleep than in awake subjects. There was no significant difference between sleep and wakefulness in end-tidal Pco2 or in the slope of the ventilatory response to 4% CO2. The transient responses of ventilation and end-tidal Pco2 of the group as a whole were similar in sleep and wakefulness. Ventilation changed more slowly than did end-tidal Pco2. End-tidal Pco2 overshot beyond the steady-state CO2 breathing value at the onset of CO2 breathing; and undershot below the control value during recovery. The magnitudes of both the overshoot and undershoot of end-tidal Pco2 were correlated significantly to the slope of the ventilatory response to 4% CO2, in the whole group awake and asleep. Submitted on October 4, 1962