Ole Storstein

Ole Storstein is first author of a 1959 experimental study separating airway resistance from lung compliance. The investigators recorded mouth-to-esophageal pressure differences, breathing volume and airflow to analyze the mechanical behavior of respiration.^[ref]

The apparatus used an intra-esophageal balloon, a differential pressure transducer and a pneumotachograph with volume integration. The paper selected corresponding points of no mouth airflow for its compliance calculation and used paired observations during inflation and deflation to estimate resistance.^[ref] Simultaneous signals matter because a pressure observed during flow includes a different mechanical contribution from pressure observed after that flow term vanishes.

For an original one-compartment model with a chosen zero-volume baseline, writewhere $C$ is lung compliance and $R$ is airway resistance. This neglects inertial and regional effects. At stipulated $C=0.10\mathrm{L}/(\mathrm{cm}{\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O})$, $V=0.40$ L, $R=5\mathrm{cm}{\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O}s/L$ and $\dot{V}=0.20$ L/s, the elastic contribution is 4 and the resistive contribution is 1 cm of water. Total modeled pressure is 5 cm of water.

Dividing volume by that total would give $0.08\mathrm{L}/(\mathrm{cm}{\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O})$, below the chosen compliance. At the same modeled volume and zero flow, pressure becomes 4 cm of water and the ratio recovers 0.10. A time point and the definition of the pressure difference are therefore part of the observable, rather than optional details.

The primary paper explicitly notes the limitation of treating a nonuniform mechanical system as uniform.^[ref] Zero net airflow at the mouth need not establish that every region has identical local behavior. Storstein's documented contribution combines apparatus, simultaneous observations and a stated mechanical interpretation, rather than equating one pressure/volume ratio with every aspect of lung function.