Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med.,
Volume 165, Number 2, January 2002, 206-210
Comparison of the Hyperoxic Test and the Alternate
Breath Test in Infants
BELKACEM
BOUFERRACHE,
SLAVI
FILTCHEV,
ANDRÉ
LEKE,
MICHEL
FREVILLE,
JORGE
GALLEGO,
and
CLAUDE
GAULTIER
Unite de Recherches sur les Adaptations Physiologiques et Comportementales (EA 2088), School of Medicine, Amiens, and
Department of Physiology, INSERM E9935, Robert Debré Hospital, Paris, France
Peripheral chemoreceptor function has been tested using either
the hyperoxic test (HT), which decreases minute ventilation (
E)
by causing physiologic chemodenervation, or the alternate breath
test (ABT), which induces
E alternations by delivering rapid hypoxic stimuli through breath-by-breath alternations in fractional
inspired O2 between normoxia (0.21) and hypoxia (0.15). No previous studies have compared ventilatory responses to both tests in
the same infants. We hypothesized that the
E decrease during HT
would be significantly related to
E alternations during ABT. Eighteen infants (postnatal age 21 ± 14 d) underwent two 30-s HTs
and two ABTs (quiet sleep, face mask, and pneumotachograph; mass spectrometry measurement of inspired and expired O2 and
CO2 fractions; and breath-by-breath analysis). The tests were done in random order. Decreases in
E and mean inspiratory flow (tidal volume over inspiratory time, VT/TI) during HTs were significantly correlated to their respective percentage coefficients of alternation during ABTs (r = 0.69 and 0.70, respectively, p < 0.01). Principal components analysis showed that the
E and VT/TI decreases
during HTs were due chiefly to a fall in VT, whereas
E and VT/TI alternations were ascribable to alternations in both VT and TI. Intraindividual coefficients of variation of
E changes were significantly lower during HTs than during ABTs. We conclude that (1)
ventilatory responses to HT and ABT are significantly correlated
despite differences in the mechanisms of the
E changes; (2) the
better reproducibility of the
E response to HT as compared with
ABT may be an advantage in clinical practice.