Survival of patients with acute lung injury or the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) has been improved by ventilation with small tidal volumes and the use of positive end-expiratory pressure ...

We assess the performance of the respiratory system by measuring how much air is inspired or expired each minute. This is called minute ventilation. To calculate minute ventilation, we also need to ...

Tidal volume is the amount of air breathed in with each normal breath. The average tidal volume is 0.5 litres (500 ml). Inspiratory reserve volume is the maximum amount of additional air that can be ...