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There have been numerous attempts to evaluate the relationships of air flow and pressure in the nasal passages. From the physiological point of view, most devices employed have major drawbacks. Intro ducing part of the measuring equipment into the nares distorts the system and alters the resistance to flow.^"'^^ Attempts to measure pressure when a known flow of air is blown through the nasal passages have been unsatisfactory. Flow is usually limited to low rates because of the unpleasantness of this technique.^'^"'**'^* Recently, Speizer and Frank*^ introduced a technique for meas uring air flow resistances simultaneously in the nasal and pulmonary passages. They employed esophageal and pharyngeal balloons to detect pressures and a mask containing a pneumotachograph to meas ure flow rate. Although this approach has the advantage of being physiologically sound, the use of balloons is limited to trained subjects and to those patients who will tolerate such procedures.

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