Oesophageal Pressure Measurement in Rabbits and Human Infants Using an Air-Filled Balloon System

Abstract

In ventilated anaesthetized rabbits the relationship between the oesophageal pressure and the intrapleural pressure, measured with an air-filled balloon system, was studied. A balloon 15 mm long and 3 mm diameter detected 95% of the measured intrapleural pressure, provided the balloon was positioned accurately. In babies undergoing IPPV, the best balloon position was in the lower third of the oesophagus. When synchronous spontaneous respiration occurred in the course of IPPV the mean of intrapleural pressure remained negative in spite of positive ventilating pressures in the range 30-45 cm H2O.

A Microfluidic System to Measure Neonatal Lung Compliance Over Late Stage Development as a Functional Measure of Lung Tissue Mechanics

“…Previous studies that have investigated neonatal lung compliance typically used esophageal balloons, manometers, or pressure transducers to measure changes in lung pressure in response to stepwise volume addition to generate discrete points on a pressure-volume (P-V) curve to calculate compliance [18][19][20]. More recently, mechanical ventilators have been used for the quantification of lung mechanics in some rodent models of BPD assessing drug efficacy on structural and functional properties of the lung in late-stage alveolarization [21,22].…”