Respiratory electromyography in acute experimental pulmonary edema in dogs
Boivin, R.; Laurent, D.
Comptes Rendus des Seances de la Societe de Biologie et de ses Filiales 166(11): 1465-1469
1972
ISSN/ISBN: 0037-9026 PMID: 4667362 Document Number: 53403
An electromyographic analysis was made of the principal, and some accessory, respiratory muscles of 14 anaesthetised dogs with artificially induced acute oedema of the lungs (AOL). The electrical activity of the various muscles studied was registered by bipolar electrodes consisting of 2 enamelled steel wires implanted in the muscles. The analysis confirmed evidence that in AOL there was a first phase of tachypnea without increased contraction of the respiratory muscles, due probably to a mechanical reflex of pulmonary origin. A second phase was characterised by the interplay of numerous accessory muscles with intensification of their contractions. It developed simultaneously with a fall of the pO2 of the arterial blood.