The effects of blood solubility, cardiac output and ventilation on the rise of the alveolar towards the inspired concentration, the F A /F I curve, of an inhaled anaesthetic are often thought to reflect how these factors affect wash-in of the central nervous system compartment and, therefore, speed of induction because F A is the partial pressure ultimately attained in the central nervous system (F VRG). These classical F A /F I curves assumed a constant F I. We used GasMan ® to examine whether changes in solubility, cardiac output and ventilation affect the relationship between the F A /F I curve and F VRG differently while either F I or F A are kept constant. Using GasMan ® , we studied the effects of solubility (desflurane vs isoflurane), cardiac output (5 vs 10 l.min-1) and minute ventilation (4 vs 8 l.min

Simple vaporiser setting (F D ) and fresh gas flow (FGF) sequences make the practice of low-flow anaesthesia not only possible but also easy to achieve. We sought to derive a sevoflurane F D sequence that maintains the end-expired sevoflurane concentration (F A sevo) at 1.3% using the fewest possible number of F D adjustments with a previously described O 2 -N 2 O FGF sequence that allows early FGF reduction to 0.7 l.min -1 .