 Respiratory-system compliance

Respiratory-system compliance is the change in volume per change in elastic pressure across the passive lung and chest wall together. For a local static relation,Lung compliance alone instead uses transpulmonary pressure, $P_L=P_{\mathrm{alv}}-P_{\mathrm{pl}}$. The whole-system and lung-only quantities are different even when they refer to the same volume change.

At that shared volume, the elastic pressure increments add. With component compliances $C_L$ and $C_W$,The reciprocals are component stiffnesses; respiratory-system elastance is $E_{\mathrm{rs}}=1/C_{\mathrm{rs}}$. For positive component compliances, the combined value is smaller than either component. OpenStax describes opposing lung and wall recoil and their pressure references.^[ref]

An original example uses $C_L=0.20$ and $C_W=0.10\mathrm{L}(\mathrm{cm}{\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O}{)}^{-1}$. The combined compliance is about 0.0667 in the same units. An added 0.50 L requires 2.5 cm water of lung elastic pressure and 5 cm water of wall pressure, totaling 7.5 cm water. Attributing that total entirely to the lung would underestimate lung-only compliance threefold.

In a passive ventilated-breath measurement, a zero-flow plateau airway pressure can be compared with the appropriately measured end-expiratory pressure. Under the stated equilibrium and no-effort assumptions, an interval estimate isFor stipulated $V_T=0.5$ L, $P_{\mathrm{plat}}=12.5$ and $P_{\mathrm{end}}=5$ cm water, this is again about 0.0667. The baseline must account for the relevant positive end-expiratory pressure; a pressure measured during nonzero flow also contains a resistive contribution. The primary pilot study explicitly compares pressure-based respiratory-system estimates under passive ventilation.^[ref]

State whether the number is a local slope or an interval ratio, which pressure references were used, and whether muscle activity and flow were excluded. Separating lung and wall contributions requires internal pressure information beyond the whole-system volume response.