The Effect of Acute Hypocapnia on the Response to Inhaled CO2 in Man

Rebreathing is a commonly used procedure by which man’s ventilatory response to a ramp rise of Pco 2 and / or decrease of Po 2 may be studied. It was first described by Haldane in the early part of this century; the modification mostly used to day is that first described by Read (1967). Loeschcke and Gertz’s important paper from 1958 describes an elegant modification of the rebreathing technique in which the effect of a falling Po2 was studied while Pco2 was maintained constant at different levels. This paper with the work of Nielsen and Smith (1952) and that of Lloyd et al. (1958) represent major early attempts at a quantitative analysis of the relationship and interaction between a rise of Pco 2 and lack of oxygen as ventilatory stimuli in man.