Performance of the partial CO2 rebreathing technique under different hemodynamic and ventilation/perfusion matching conditions.

Objective: The partial CO2 rebreathing technique has been demonstrated to accurately measure the effective pulmonary capillary blood flow (PCBF) in different clinical situations. Usually, PCBF is calculated from changes in CO2 elimination (VCO2) and end-tidal partial pressure of CO2 (PetCO2 ), which can be obtained noninvasively. In this study, we investigated the performance of the partial CO2 rebreathing technique under different conditions of ventilation/perfusion matching and hemodynamic states.