title: Delay time correction of the gas analyzer in the calculation of anatomical dead space of the lung.
abstract: By means of a mathematical model, we have studied a way to correct the delay time of the gas analyzer in order to calculate the anatomical dead space using Fowler's graphical method. The mathematical model was constructed of ten tubes of equal diameter but unequal length, so that the amount of dead space varied from tube to tube; the tubes were emptied sequentially. The gas analyzer responds with a time lag from the input of the gas signal to the beginning of the response, followed by an exponential response output. The single breath expired volume-concentration relationship was examined with three types of expired flow patterns of which were constant, exponential and sinusoidal. The results indicate that the time correction by the lag time plus time constant of the exponential response of the gas analyzer gives an accurate estimation of anatomical dead space. Time correction less inclusive than this, e.g. lag time only or lag time plus 50% response time, gives an overestimation, and a correction larger than this results in underestimation. The magnitude of error is dependent on the flow pattern and flow rate. The time correction in this study is only for the calculation of dead space, as the corrected volume-concentration curves does not coincide with the true curve. Such correction of the output of the gas analyzer is extremely important when one needs to compare the dead spaces of different gas species at a rather faster flow rate.
mesh_terms: D005740:Gases / Q000032:analysis*; D008168:Lung / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D008176:Lung Volume Measurements / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D008433:Mathematics; D008954:Models, Biological; D012126:Respiratory Dead Space; D013990:Tidal Volume; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D005740:Gases