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The breathing circuit may be open, closed, or semi-closed, depending on whether breathing gas is recycled. A closed or semi-closed circuit will include components which remove carbon dioxide from the exhaled gas and add oxygen before it is delivered for inhalation, so that the mixture remains stable and suitable for supporting life.
The number of respiratory cycles per minute is the breathing or respiratory rate, and is one of the four primary vital signs of life. [5] Under normal conditions the breathing depth and rate is automatically, and unconsciously, controlled by several homeostatic mechanisms which keep the partial pressures of carbon dioxide and oxygen in the ...
The spinal cord reflex responses include the activation of additional respiratory muscles as compensation, gasping response, hypoventilation, and an increase in breathing frequency and volume. The nasopulmonary and nasothoracic reflexes regulate the mechanism of breathing through deepening the inhale.
The respiratory system (also respiratory apparatus, ventilatory system) is a biological system consisting of specific organs and structures used for gas exchange in animals and plants. The anatomy and physiology that make this happen varies greatly, depending on the size of the organism, the environment in which it lives and its evolutionary ...
The process of breathing does not fill the alveoli with atmospheric air during each inhalation (about 350 ml per breath), but the inhaled air is carefully diluted and thoroughly mixed with a large volume of gas (about 2.5 liters in adult humans) known as the functional residual capacity which remains in the lungs after each exhalation, and ...
Inhalation of air, as part of the cycle of breathing, is a vital process for all human life. The process is autonomic (though there are exceptions in some disease states) and does not need conscious control or effort. However, breathing can be consciously controlled or interrupted (within limits).
Anatomically, the lung structure, alveolar organization, and alveolar capillaries contribute to the physiological mechanism of ventilation and perfusion. [1] Ventilation–perfusion coupling maintains a constant ventilation/perfusion ratio near 0.8 on average, while the regional variation exists within the lungs due to gravity.
Diagram showing expiration. Exhalation (or expiration) is the flow of the breath out of an organism. In animals, it is the movement of air from the lungs out of the airways, to the external environment during breathing.