Dynamics of cough

Abstract

Summary: A technique has been developed whereby large regional differences in tracer gas concentration are produced in the lungs. Analysis of the expired flow rate and tracer gas concentration during a cough suggests that as the glottis opens there is, at first, a uniform pattern of gas flow through the airways, but in the post-peak phase of flow there is sudden closure of the independent airways which open again when the subject relaxes. This opening effect may be impaired when lung elastic recoil is diminished widi increasing age. © 1970 John Sherratt and Son Ltd.