Objective  To determine the usefulness of serial measurements of the rapid shallow breathing index ( f/VT , RSBI) as a predictor for successfully weaning of patients undergoing prolonged mechanical ventilation (  gt; 72 hours) . Methods  76 mechanically ventilated patients were prospectively analyzed. 120-min spontaneous breathing trial was conducted after the patients having fullfiled the traditional weaning criteria, and RSBI were continuously monitored by the ventilator at five time points ( 5, 15, 30,60, and 120 min) . A repeated measure of general linear model in SPSS 15.0 was conducted to analyze the data. Results  62 patients completed 120-minute spontaneous breath trial and in which 20 patients failed weaning. There was no significant difference of RSBI at five time points during weaning ( P  gt;0. 05) . But the
variation trends of RSBI during weaning time were significant different between the successful weaning patients and the failed weaning patients ( P  lt; 0. 05) . Conclusions  In patients undergoing prolonged mechanical ventilation, the variation trend of RSBI is more valuable than single RSBI in the prediction of
successful weaning.

Citation： MA Yujie,CAO Xiangyuan.. Variation Trend of Rapid Shallow Breathing Index in Prediction of Ventilator Weaning Process. Chinese Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 2010, 9(6): 567-569. doi: Copy