Anesthesiology
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The degree to which different volatile anesthetics depress carotid body hypoxic response relates to their ability to activate TASK potassium channels. Most commonly, volatile anesthetic pairs act additively at their molecular targets. We examined whether this applied to carotid body TASK channels. ⋯ In all three experimental models, the effects of isoflurane and halothane combinations were quantitatively consistent with the modeling of weak and strong agonists competing at a common receptor on the TASK channel.
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Prone ventilation redistributes lung inflation along the gravitational axis; however, localized, nongravitational effects of body position are less well characterized. The authors hypothesize that positional inflation improvements follow both gravitational and nongravitational distributions. This study is a nonoverlapping reanalysis of previously published large animal data. ⋯ During mechanical ventilation, lung reinflation and recruitment by the prone positioning were primarily localized in the dorso-caudal lung. The local effects of positioning in this lung region may determine its clinical efficacy.