The Sensation Produced by Threshold Resistive Loads to Breathing

Abstract. The ability to detect resistances added to the tracheostomy tubes of E.N.T. patients was improved by allowing the pressure changes to be transmitted to the upper airways (by deflating the tracheostomy tube cuff). This suggests that the upper airways are sensitive detectors of added airway resistance and that this sensitivity masks impaired thoracic mechanisms of detection. Patients with chronic obstructive airways disease were able to detect added resistances less well than those with minimal airway disease. Patients with cervical cord transections from spinal level C3 to C6 were able to detect threshold resistive loads normally. It is concluded that receptors in the chest wall and diaphragm are not essential for the normal sensation of threshold resistive loads.