PubMed1976
11 laboratories of the working group "Pathophysiology of Breathing" cooperated with standardized methods to obtain generally admitted practical criterions for the definition of respiratory insufficiency. Function parameters of 2800 examined persons in different diagnostic groups were tested by manual statistical analysis and computed by data processing system. which were assessed with regard to their usefulness as criterions for respiratory insufficiency. The arterial O2-partial pressure proved to be the most crucial criterion of respiratory insufficiency permitting objective evidence of a manifest respiratory insufficiency by hypoxeamia under standard efforts with a bicycle-ergometer. The screening parameters of ventilation such as vital capacity and forced exspiratory volume are suitable as subjective rapid methods for a quantitative estimation of one type of respiratory insufficiency: the ventilation disturbance. Investigations, which were carried out with a higher apparatus expense like the estimation of residual volume, the functional residual capacity, and the arterial CO2-partial pressure permit the further differentiation of causes of the respiratory insufficiency and the separation between respiratory partial- and global insufficiency. The parameters of gas exchange: O2-consumption, respiratory quotient, and the screening parameter of cardiocirculation heart rate are not or only limited useful as criterions of respiratory insufficiency alone.