1. Depiction of an expiratory flow curve.
Depiction of an expiratory flow curve. A patient with a lung that initially has low compliance has a steeper expiratory flow curve (30°) and will require a short release phase (TLow) (0.3 s in this example) to terminate the expiratory flow rate at 75% of the peak expiratory flow (PEFR). As the lung recruits and becomes more compliant, the slope decreases to 45°, requiring an extension in the TLow time, in this example to 0.5 s. With alveolar recruitment and increasing compliance, the lung is able to accommodate larger tidal volumes. Thus, airway pressure release ventilation allows for mechanical ventilation that is time controlled and adaptive to the patient's respiratory system mechanics (time-controlled adaptive ventilation). Reproduced with permission from the Intensive Care On-line Network (ICON).
Michaela Kollisch-Singule et al. Eur Respir Rev 2019;28:180126
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