Recent advances in clinical assessment of control of breathing

It is shown that the use of simple noninvasive techniques and careful analysis of the breathing pattern has led to new hypotheses about the disorder in ventilatory control in patients with respiratory disease.

Abstract

In the present review I have attempted to show that the use of simple noninvasive techniques and careful analysis of the breathing pattern has led to new hypotheses about the disorder in ventilatory control in patients with respiratory disease. Clearly, further investigation is needed before this complicated aspect of respiratory physiopathology is fully understood. Nevertheless, recent advances in this field have provided enough information to allow the emergence of a more coherent picture. Thus, while many problems remain, the questions to be pursued in future research have been somewhat clarified.