Modeling and evaluation of respiratory and muscle pattern during hypercapnic stimulus

Understanding the respiratory control system and the ventilatory pattern under hypercapnic stimulus is important to interpret the acute exacerbation of COPD and the condition of patients connected to mechanical ventilation. The purpose of this study is the analysis of respiratory and muscle parameters in order to obtain the most sensitive and characteristic of different levels of hypercapnic stimulus. Parameters defined and calculated from pressure signals show the highest variations with the increment of stimulus. Other ones like exhaled ventilation or ratios between respiratory parameters are more influenced by hypercapnia than tidal volume, respiratory frequency or even end tidal CO₂. Muscle parameters from electromyographic signals of three respiratory muscles are calculated in time and frequency domain. In spite of greater variability between subjects, the most interesting muscles because of their activation with higher stimulus are in the following order: diaphragm, sternomastoid and genioglossus. Moreover, a model of respiratory control system is evaluated in order to predict and simulate appropriately this ventilatory stimulus. In spite of scattered real data, they are compared with simulation results obtained by the model and predicted by means of a specific respiratory optimization.