An appropriate inspiratory flow pattern can enhance CO2 exchange

[Solotor]

I stumbled upon this study from 2016 and thought it might be of interest to the community:

https://academic.oup.com/bja/article-pdf/117/2/243/18275078/aew194.pdf

Now I can't say how this translates to scuba diving. My takeaway is that given a fixed breathing cycle and volume, it is best to increase the air flow towards the end of inspiration, followed by a short pause before exhaling, to expel the most CO2.

For divers, an increased inspiratory flow needs to be weighed against the increased work-of-breathing that this would incur.

 

[The Chairman]

I would love @Dr Simon Mitchell's opinion on this.

 

[fmerkel]

That's pretty much how I breathe UW. The deeper > the slower.
The worst is shallow rapid breathing, which anxiety tends to produce, which produces more anxiety, which produces more CO2, which......you get the picture.

 

[northernone]

Deep dive breath rate?

Seems to be a bit of a trend in the poll.

Talking with the old deep air divers there is anecdotally lots of emphasis on attention to respiratory pattern for ventilating the denser gas. With trimix or shallow dives we seem to not need to do anything besides for "breath normally".

We know poor ventilating promotes co2 retention... Makes sense there would be an optimum pattern as well.

I too am interested if optimized breathing patterns are significant.