Measurement of Breath-holding time in the Acute Respiratory Patient

In 1909, Douglas and Haldane (1) demonstrated the relationship of Pa02 and PaC02 to breath-holding time (BHT). Muxworthy (7) described the direct effect of initial lung volume on breath-holding time in 1951.At the present, it is felt that breath-holding time is determined by, " . . . the interaction of a number of independent variables which can be classified in two major sets of stimuli: those related to lung volume and those derived from changes in gas tension and pH.” (3)Although a considerable body of knowledge has been acquired about breath-holding in a laboratory setting, very little work has been done to date on breath-holding in a clinical setting with respiratory patients. It was the object of the present study to determine the feasibility of measuring BHT’s on acutely ill patients in a clinical situation