Abstract
The overall goal of the cardiorespiratory system is to provide the organs and tissues of the body with an adequate supply of oxygen in relation to oxygen consumption. An understanding of the complex physiologic interactions between the respiratory and cardiac systems is essential to optimal patient management. Alterations in intrathoracic pressure are transmitted to the heart and lungs and can dramatically alter cardiovascular performance, with significant differences existing between the physiologic response of the right and left ventricles to changes in intrathoracic pressure. In terms of cardiorespiratory interactions, the clinician should titrate the mean airway pressure to optimize the balance between mean lung volume (ie, arterial oxygenation) and ventricular function (ie, global cardiac output), minimize pulmonary vascular resistance, and routinely monitor cardiorespiratory parameters closely. Oxygen delivery to all organs and tissues of the body should be optimized, but not necessarily maximized. The heart and lungs are, obviously, connected anatomically but also physiologically in a complex relationship.
- cardiorespiratory interactions
- cardiac output
- oxygen delivery
- oxygenation
- acidosis
- neonate
- pediatric
- oxygen consumption
- oxygen
- mechanical ventilation
- hypoxia
- hypoxemia
Footnotes
- Correspondence: Ira M Cheifetz MD FAARC, Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, Duke Children's Hospital, Duke University Medical Center, Box 3046, Durham, NC 27710. E-mail: ira.cheifetz{at}duke.edu.
Dr Cheifetz has disclosed no conflicts of interest.
Dr Cheifetz presented a version of this paper at the New Horizons in Respiratory Care Symposium: Back to the Basics: Respiratory Physiology in Critically Ill Patients of the AARC Congress 2013, held November 16–19, 2013, in Anaheim, California.
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