the graphic recording of the respiratory movements in man and animals. Pneumography is widely used in experimental and clinical physiological studies to obtain information on respiratory movements, regulation of external respiration, and respiratory impairment caused by various disorders and pathologic conditions.
Pneumographic methods are varied. The apparatus used has three main elements: a sensor that responds directly to respiratory movements, a device that transmits the sensor’s readings to a recording apparatus, and a recording system. Usually the sensor alone is called a pneumograph, but the entire apparatus is sometimes so named. The sensor’s signals may be transmitted to the recorder at a considerable distance by means of radio communication; this technique is called telepneumography. Since pneumography does not yield quantitative data on lung ventilation, it is usually supplemented by spirometry or spirography, which records basic lung volumes, and by pneumotachography, which records the volume rate of air entering and leaving the lungs during inspiration and expiration.
Pneumography is combined with electromyography of the respiratory muscles to investigate the role of individual muscles in respiratory movements and to analyze details of external respiration.