The mechanism often quoted is the “ hypoxic drive to breath “. The idea is that COPD patients tend to have chronically elevated levels of carbon dioxide due to the nature of their illness. As such, administering oxygen to these patients with COPD can be dangerous.

The hypoxic drive is a form of respiratory drive in which the body uses oxygen chemoreceptors instead of carbon dioxide receptors to regulate the respiratory cycle. Normal respiration is driven mostly by the levels of carbon dioxide in the arteries, which are detected by peripheral chemoreceptors, and very little by the oxygen levels. An ...

Jun 5, 2023 · Hypoxia induces a breathing pattern of rapid and shallow breaths with a relatively higher increase in respiratory rate than tidal volume. The aim is to decrease the cost of breathing by avoiding the need to overcome the lungs' higher elastance at high volumes.

Jun 3, 2016 · When hypoxemia exists with chronic hypercapnia, the central response to carbon dioxide is blunted, and the primary stimulus to breathe is mediated through hypoxic stimulation of the peripheral chemoreceptors. This is known as the hypoxic drive, and it is real.

In patients with COPD, hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction is the most efficient way to alter the Va/Q ratios to improve gas exchange. This physiological mechanism is counteracted by oxygen therapy and accounts for the largest increase of oxygen-induced hypercapnia.

Dec 7, 2012 · One of the most clinically interesting and least understood theories in respiratory medicine is the hypoxic-drive theory. This holds that people who chronically retain carbon dioxide lose their hypercarbic drive to breathe.

Understanding the hypoxic drive and release of hypoxic vasoconstriction in the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease population can be somewhat confusing and misunderstood. Furthermore, the hypoxic drive theory is one in which there really is no scientific evidence to support and yet continues to pr …