Go to JCI Insight
  • About
  • Editors
  • Consulting Editors
  • For authors
  • Publication ethics
  • Publication alerts by email
  • Advertising
  • Job board
  • Contact
  • Clinical Research and Public Health
  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • By specialty
    • COVID-19
    • Cardiology
    • Gastroenterology
    • Immunology
    • Metabolism
    • Nephrology
    • Neuroscience
    • Oncology
    • Pulmonology
    • Vascular biology
    • All ...
  • Videos
    • Conversations with Giants in Medicine
    • Video Abstracts
  • Reviews
    • View all reviews ...
    • Pancreatic Cancer (Jul 2025)
    • Complement Biology and Therapeutics (May 2025)
    • Evolving insights into MASLD and MASH pathogenesis and treatment (Apr 2025)
    • Microbiome in Health and Disease (Feb 2025)
    • Substance Use Disorders (Oct 2024)
    • Clonal Hematopoiesis (Oct 2024)
    • Sex Differences in Medicine (Sep 2024)
    • View all review series ...
  • Viewpoint
  • Collections
    • In-Press Preview
    • Clinical Research and Public Health
    • Research Letters
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Editorials
    • Commentaries
    • Editor's notes
    • Reviews
    • Viewpoints
    • 100th anniversary
    • Top read articles

  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • Specialties
  • Reviews
  • Review series
  • Conversations with Giants in Medicine
  • Video Abstracts
  • In-Press Preview
  • Clinical Research and Public Health
  • Research Letters
  • Letters to the Editor
  • Editorials
  • Commentaries
  • Editor's notes
  • Reviews
  • Viewpoints
  • 100th anniversary
  • Top read articles
  • About
  • Editors
  • Consulting Editors
  • For authors
  • Publication ethics
  • Publication alerts by email
  • Advertising
  • Job board
  • Contact
Direct recordings of the temperatures in the tracheobronchial tree in normal man.
E R McFadden Jr, … , A Peacock, T Sopwith
E R McFadden Jr, … , A Peacock, T Sopwith
Published March 1, 1982
Citation Information: J Clin Invest. 1982;69(3):700-705. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI110498.
View: Text | PDF
Research Article

Direct recordings of the temperatures in the tracheobronchial tree in normal man.

  • Text
  • PDF
Abstract

In an effect to determine how far inspired air could penetrate into the respiratory tract before being brought to body conditions, we measured the temperature in the airways of the anterior basilar segment of the right lower lobe in five normal subjects while they breathed air at subfreezing and ambient conditions. During quiet breathing, most of the heating of the incoming gas took place in the upper airways as expected. However, as the thermal burden was increased by rapid inspirations, frigid air, and hyperventilation, the temperature of the distal airways progressively fell and the point at which the incoming air reached body conditions moved deep into the periphery of the lung. These findings demonstrate that heat and water transfer is not localized to one region, but rather is a continuous process that begins the moment the air enters the body and involves as much of the respiratory tract as necessary to complete the task.

Authors

E R McFadden Jr, D M Denison, J F Waller, B Assoufi, A Peacock, T Sopwith

×

Full Text PDF

Download PDF (1.01 MB)

Copyright © 2025 American Society for Clinical Investigation
ISSN: 0021-9738 (print), 1558-8238 (online)

Sign up for email alerts