Ethane production rates and minute ventilation.

Ethane quantitated in the expired alveolar gas is a noninvasive measure of free radical activity. This method has been criticized for lack of control of minute ventilation (VE) in spontaneously breathing animals, although ethane, which is poorly soluble in tissues, should not be affected by changes in VE. We measured ethane elimination rates in six strain 13 guinea pigs (GP13) during spontaneous room air breathing and in six room air breathing, pentobarbital-anesthetized, tracheostomized, externally warmed, mechanically ventilated GP13s at various levels of VE. In the ventilated animals, weight0.75/VE (metabolic activity corrected for VE) was a linear function of arterial CO2 tension (PaCO2) drawn from arterial line (r = 0.72, P less than 0.005). However, weight0.75/VE did not correlate with ethane elimination rates (r = 0.12, not significant). The mean (+/- SD) ethane elimination rates in the spontaneously breathing animals was 3.15 +/- 0.96 pmol.min-1.100 g-1 and was not significantly different from the...