Hypoventilation in Obstructive Lung Disease

Abstract

To determine the role of familial factors in the hypoventilation of chronic obstructive lung disease we measured chemical drives to breathe in normal offspring of two groups of patients with an equal degree of obstruction. One group of five patients had repeatedly normal arterial carbon dioxide tension (PaCO₂), whereas PaCO₂'s were elevated in the other group of six. Two adult offspring of each patient were studied. Drives were measured as the ventilatory response to isocapnic hypoxia, and the slopes of the ventilation/PCO₂ relation (the hypercapnic ventilatory response).