Nasal high flow and respiratory patterns: Determinants of underlying lung functions-are complex interactions easily controlled?

摘要

Nasal high flow (nHF) therapy is a growing technology for respiratory support in different types of acute respiratory failure [ 1 ]. However, there are still some controversial issues and few studies in chronic pulmonary diseases [2]. Braunlich et al. [3] analyzed the effects of nHF on the ventilatory patterns in three different clinical conditions: healthy volunteers, patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). In this interesting and original study investigating ventilatory response, Braunlich et al. show potential new applications for IPF and COPD. We feel that some comments on the clinical practice implications of these observations are necessary. First, these results are clearly limited to the flow rate selected (20 liters/min) and may limit extrapolation to patients with poor baseline or an unstable pattern and a mild PCO_2 level.