The purpose of the second Nagoya Respiratory Intensive Care Conference held in Nagoya, Japan, March 3, 1990, was to bring together researchers and clinicians with a stated interest in the work of breathing during assisted, or patient-initiated, ventilation (ie, ventilatory assist). Whereas the 1988 Nagoya Conference had focused on systems design and patient-ventilator interactions during pressure support ventilation, the presentations summarized in this report focus on aspects of work of breathing and ventilatory muscle function, with the unifying theme of the Conference being triggering and optimizing mechanical ventilatory assist. The specific questions were: What is the optimal method of triggering ventilator systems? and What parameter best assesses the most appropriate level of ventilatory assist?
Kacmarek et al. (Tue,) studied this question.