Measurement of phase I volume breath by breath in spontaneously breathing guinea pigs.

A new method to determine phase I volume in tracheotomized spontaneously breathing guinea pigs is presented. Measurements were performed in three animals weighing 567-896 g. In simultaneous tracings of tidal volume (VT) and expiratory profiles of endogenous gases (PO2 or PCO2), the phase I volume of each breath was determined graphically as the volume expired up to the end of phase I of the expirogram. The mean phase I volume of different animals ranged from 0.29 to 0.43 ml with an arithmetic dispersion between 0.014 and 0.021 ml. Spontaneous sighs sometimes with doubling of the VT caused a significant rise of phase I volume up to 50% of the normal values. The linear regression curve was c…